Finland became the 31st member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on the military alliance’s 74th anniversary during an April 4 ceremony in Brussels, Belgium.
Immediately after, ministers convened to discuss the pending admission of Ukraine into NATO as it fights off Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
No action is expected soon on Ukraine’s request, first filed and tentatively approved in 2008, but several panelists during a four-hour April 5 Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) forum in Washington said the embattled nation should be enrolled quickly, even before it is accepted into the European Union (EU).
In June 2022, the European Commission recommended Ukraine be granted candidate status for accession to the 27-nation EU once seven conditions—all related to rule of law and corruption—are resolved….