Finland’s parliament votes yes to NATO

HELSINKI, May 17 (Reuters) - Finland's parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly accredited 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 determined 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 appliance, Speaker Matti Vanhanen stated.

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Overseas Minister Pekka Haavisto said the decision was no motive to celebrate as a result of "there may be warfare in Europe".

"Finland's membership in NATO is not going to change our basic considering that we'll always seek peaceful options and we are a peace-loving nation that may first and foremost seek diplomatic options to each battle," he said through 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 choice with a counter proposal resulting in it being put to the vote.

"Our border would turn out to be the border between the army alliance and Russia. New tensions would not be a threat solely through the software process but somewhat a new and everlasting situation of our overseas and security coverage," he mentioned.

Early on Tuesday, the international affairs committee decided to hitch the state management in proposing to parliament that the Nordic country should apply for membership.

"Having heard a really large variety of experts and having obtained the opinions of 10 (parliamentary) committees, the foreign affairs committee agrees with the federal government that Finland should apply for membership in NATO. This determination is unanimous," chairman Jussi Halla-aho advised reporters.

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

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