Finland attends as member for 1st time as NATO summit begins

Finland is participating in the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) beginning on Tuesday in Vilnius for the first time as a full-fledged member.

President Sauli Niinistö will lead the Finnish delegation in the two-day long summit being held for the first time after Finland became the member of the military alliance on April 4 this year.

Previously, the President led the Finnish delegation to NATO Summits in Madrid in June 2022, a virtual Summit in February 2022, and in Brussels in 2018, Warsaw in 2016, Wales in 2014 and Chicago in 2012 When Finland was a partner country.

The ratification process for Finland´s NATO membership was completed on March 30 after Turkish parliament ratified the membership protocol for Finland.

Finland formally submitted NATO membership applications on May 17, 2022.

In late June, 2022, the Foreign Ministers of Finland, Sweden and Turkey signed a trilateral memorandum which confirmed that Turkey will support the Finland´s and Sweden´s NATO membership applications.

Although Finland, Sweden and Turkey held several trilateral meetings, Turkey remained negative regarding Swedish membership and finally agreed to support Finland´s membership.

On July 5, the ambassadors of the 30 NATO states signed the accession protocols at the organization's headquarters in Brussels, with the foreign ministers of the two Nordic countries in attendance.

The main themes of the Summit will be NATO's deterrence and defence, a new defence investment pledge, NATO’s support for Ukraine, the development of Ukraine's relationship with NATO and cooperation between NATO and its partners.