On the first anniversary of Finland's accession to Nato, President Alexander Stubb has praised the Finnish people's continuing support for the decision to join the alliance.
"Finland’s great strength as a member of the alliance is national unity. Nine out of ten Finns support the membership," he said in a statement on Thursday, about a month after taking office.
"In Finland, the change that our joining the military alliance brought about was minor on the one hand, and revolutionary on the other hand," Stubb said.
A day earlier, Stubb visited Kyiv to sign a defence agreement between Finland and Ukraine.
"Nato represents freedom to choose"
Thursday also marks the 75th anniversary of Nato's founding, which will be celebrated on a larger scale at the Nato summit in Washington next July.
Late Wednesday, the alliance held its first ministerial meeting with Sweden as a full member.
Swedish foreign minister Tobias Billström took part in the meeting in Brussels after the country became Nato's 32nd ally last month. Finland and Sweden applied to join simultaneously in May 2022, but Sweden's application was blocked for months by Turkey and Hungary.
"Nato represents the freedom to choose," Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen (NCP) said at the meeting.
"Democratic nations, free people chose to join, unlike how Russia expands its by aggression or by illegal annexation," she added.
Also on Thursday, the new Chief of Defence and Commander of the Finnish Defence Forces, General Janne Jaakkola, said that it was very unlikely that Russia would test Nato's collective defence.
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