Finland’s parliament votes yes to NATO

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

President Sauli Niinisto and the federal government determined formally on Sunday that Finland would apply for membership however the resolution was pending parliament's approval.

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

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Overseas Minister Pekka Haavisto mentioned the decision was no reason to have fun because "there may be war in Europe".

"Finland's membership in NATO won't change our basic thinking that we'll all the time search peaceful options and we are a peace-loving nation that can first and foremost seek diplomatic options to every battle," he mentioned in the course of the debate.

Opponents to the application 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 resulting in 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 threat only through the application course of but moderately a new and permanent situation of our overseas and safety policy," he mentioned.

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

"Having heard a very large variety of consultants and having received the opinions of 10 (parliamentary) committees, the international affairs committee agrees with the government that Finland should apply for membership in NATO. This decision is unanimous," chairman Jussi Halla-aho told reporters.

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

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