Finland officially joined the NATO military alliance on April 4th after Turkey ratified the Nordic country’s membership. This ended its military non-alignment policy that Finland had had since 1945. The move was triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
 　Finland becomes the 31st full NATO member and its accession roughly doubles the length of the border the NATO shares with Russia. Finns said their country’s entry into NATO made them feel more secure. The move is dealing a heavy blow to Russia. It responded by saying it would strengthen its military capacity in its west and northwest.
 　All NATO members must vote unanimously to admit a new country into the alliance. Finland and neighboring Sweden jointly applied for NATO membership in May 2022. But Sweden’s bid has stalled due to opposition from Turkey, whose president has accused Sweden of being too soft on groups that it deems to be terror organizations.

　在土耳其點頭同意後，北歐國家芬蘭在4月4 日正式加入北約軍事聯盟，結束該國自1945年以來軍事不結盟的政策。此舉的導火線是俄羅斯入侵烏克蘭。
　芬蘭成為北約第31個正式成員國，它的加入讓北約與俄羅斯的邊界長度增加約一倍。芬蘭人民表示，該國加入北約讓他們感到更有安全感。此舉對俄羅斯造成沉重打擊，該國會加強在西部和西北部的軍事部署。
　新成員加入，必須獲得所有北約成員國一致表決同意。芬蘭和鄰國瑞典在去年5 月同時申請加入北約，但遭到土耳其反對，因為土耳其總統指責瑞典過於包容土國認為是恐怖組織的團體，導致瑞典的入會申請停滯。