Finnish parliament to vote on legislation ratifying NATO membership

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) – The Finnish parliament on Wednesday will vote on a legislation ratifying the Nordic country’s accession to NATO.

The majority of Finnish lawmakers will vote to approve or reject the approval and implementation of the North Atlantic Treaty.

The government's proposal on Finland's NATO membership was in the parliament's second plenary hearing on Tuesday, with MPs having mixed reaction to the ratification.

The debate took around four hours on Tuesday before the final vote on Wednesday, which is due at 2 p.m. local time (1200GMT).

Finland officially applied for the bloc membership along with Sweden in May last year, abandoning decades of military non-alignment, a decision spurred by Russia's war on Ukraine, which started on Feb. 24, 2022.