Finland’s parliament votes yes to NATO

HELSINKI, Might 17 (Reuters) - Finland's parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a proposal to apply for membership of the NATO navy 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 resolution was pending parliament's approval.

Of the 200 lawmakers, 188 voted in favour and eight towards the application, Speaker Matti Vanhanen said.

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International Minister Pekka Haavisto stated the decision was no cause to rejoice because "there's warfare in Europe".

"Finland's membership in NATO will not change our basic thinking that we'll always seek peaceful options and we're a peace-loving nation that can initially seek diplomatic solutions to each battle," he stated through the debate.

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

"Our border would develop into the border between the navy alliance and Russia. New tensions would not be a threat solely through the software process but moderately a brand new and permanent situation of our foreign and security policy," he mentioned.

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

"Having heard a really massive number of experts and having received the opinions of 10 (parliamentary) committees, the international affairs committee agrees with the federal government that Finland should apply for membership in NATO. This choice is unanimous," chairman Jussi Halla-aho advised reporters.

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

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