Finland’s parliament votes yes to NATO

HELSINKI, Might 17 (Reuters) - Finland's parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a proposal to apply for membership of the NATO army alliance in a historic policy shift prompted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

President Sauli Niinisto and the government decided officially on Sunday that Finland would apply for membership but the resolution was pending parliament's approval.

Of the 200 lawmakers, 188 voted in favour and eight in opposition to the application, Speaker Matti Vanhanen stated.

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Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto stated the decision was no cause to have fun as a result of "there is struggle in Europe".

"Finland's membership in NATO won't change our fundamental pondering that we are going to all the time seek peaceable options and we're a peace-loving nation that will first and foremost search diplomatic solutions to each battle," he stated in the course of the debate.

Opponents to the application included some lawmakers from the Left Alliance, a part of Finland's five-party coalition, amongst them Markus Mustajarvi who challenged the decision with a counter proposal leading to it being put to the vote.

"Our border would become the border between the army alliance and Russia. New tensions would not be a threat solely in the course of the software course of but relatively a new and permanent situation of our overseas and safety policy," he mentioned.

Early on Tuesday, the foreign affairs committee decided to affix the state management in proposing to parliament that the Nordic nation should apply for membership.

"Having heard a really giant number of experts and having obtained the opinions of 10 (parliamentary) committees, the international affairs committee agrees with the government that Finland ought to apply for membership in NATO. This resolution is unanimous," chairman Jussi Halla-aho told reporters.

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Reporting by Anne Kauranen; Editing by Robert Birsel and Alison Williams

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