Military power of Finland & NATO

Finland is a country located in Northern Europe with an area of 338,424 km² (land boundries: 2,563 km and costline 1,250 km). The capital of Finland is Helsinki. The number of inhabitants is 5,536,146.

Finland was not a member of NATO, but Finland and NATO actively cooperated in peace-support operations, exercised together, and exchanged analysis and information. Finland is a signatory of the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP). On 5 July 2022, NATO signed the accession protocol for Finland to join the alliance. The inventory of the Finnish Defense Forces consists of a wide mix of mostly modern US, European, and domestically-produced weapons systems.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (North Atlantic Alliance) is an intergovernmental military alliance which was signed in Washington on 4 April 1949. NATO is a system of collective security: its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by others countries. NATO's main headquarters are located in Brussels. The following twelve states signed the treaty and became the founding members: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom and United States. The following states joined the treaty after 1949: Greece, Germany, Turkey and Spain. Members who joined after the dissolution of the Soviet Union: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia.

Before and during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, several NATO countries sent army to reinforce the alliance's eastern flank. Alliance had deployed 40,000 troops along its 2,500 kilometres long Eastern flank to deter possible Russian aggression. On 5 July the North Atlantic Alliance members signed off on the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland and formally approved the decisions of the NATO summit.

Finland joined the alliance on 4 April 2023.