US President Joe Biden welcomes Finland as 31st member of NATO

US President Joe Biden has welcomed Finland becoming a member of NATO. In a tweet, he said it is a historic day as Finland’s addition to the alliance will make it stronger than ever. He further said that he looks forward to welcoming Sweden as a NATO ally as soon as possible.

Finland joined the NATO and become the 31st member of the military alliance yesterday. Finland’s membership became official when its foreign minister handed over documents completing its accession process to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at Brussels. The U.S. State Department is the repository of NATO texts concerning membership. However, Russia has said that it would be forced to take counter-measures to ensure its security. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the move to include Finland into NATO an encroachment on Russia’s security. He alleged that the structure of NATO is hostile towards Russia.