Finland’s parliament votes sure to NATO

HELSINKI, May 17 (Reuters) - Finland's parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly authorised a proposal to apply for membership of the NATO army alliance in a historic coverage shift prompted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

President Sauli Niinisto and the government determined officially on Sunday that Finland would apply for membership but the decision was pending parliament's approval.

Of the 200 lawmakers, 188 voted in favour and eight against the applying, Speaker Matti Vanhanen mentioned.

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Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said the decision was no cause to have a good time as a result of "there is war in Europe".

"Finland's membership in NATO will not change our basic pondering that we will at all times seek peaceful solutions and we are a peace-loving nation that will first and foremost search diplomatic solutions to each conflict," he said in the course of the debate.

Opponents to the application included some lawmakers from the Left Alliance, part of Finland's five-party coalition, amongst them Markus Mustajarvi who challenged the choice with a counter proposal leading to it being put to the vote.

"Our border would grow to be the border between the military alliance and Russia. New tensions wouldn't be a risk solely during the software course of however quite a brand new and everlasting situation of our international and safety coverage," he mentioned.

Early on Tuesday, the overseas affairs committee decided to affix the state leadership in proposing to parliament that the Nordic country should apply for membership.

"Having heard a really massive variety of specialists and having received the opinions of 10 (parliamentary) committees, the overseas affairs committee agrees with the federal government that Finland ought to apply for membership in NATO. This decision is unanimous," chairman Jussi Halla-aho told reporters.

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Reporting by Anne Kauranen; Editing by Robert Birsel and Alison Williams

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