Finland to apply to join NATO | ABCNL

a major move by finland tonight this scandinavian country which shares hundreds of miles of border with russia is seeking to join nato this comes despite warnings from russia and its complicated past of neutrality since world war ii ines de la cuetara reports for us tonight from helsinki tonight a major decision by one of russia's western neighbors seeking to join the world's most powerful strategic alliance nato we are convinced that finland will bring added value to nato we would like to maximize our security in way or another while thinking membership in nato after years of neutrality finland announcing in a statement nato membership would strengthen finland security finland must apply for nato membership without delay finland may be the world's happiest country on the surface but deep underground painful reminders of the past it's a long way down but we are heading beneath the capital city of helsinki to visit what looks like it's right out of a cold war spy novel this is what's known as the underground city you've got this massive network of tunnels and bunkers that spreads out all across the city it's a network that's been slowly expanding since the end of world war ii and you now have enough bunkers to house more than the city's total population more than 5 thousand bomb shelters in helsinki over fifty thousand in the entire country here all buildings above a certain size are required to have their own bunkers so these are the types of beds that would be used in the event of an emergency these bunk beds right here you've also got the bathrooms already set up and they've got ventilation up there with so much ground going unutilized the city converting some of these shelters into spaces for everyday public use there's an underground playground a shelter that doubles as a hockey rink and beyond these two sets of massive blast proof doors so the first door is like a pressure door even an underground swimming pool we are more than 55 feet below ground right now this bunker has been repurposed into a swimming pool you can see it's been carved out of the rock here and it can house up to 3 800 people so we have 72 hours we emptied this big pool so you would empty out the pool it takes one to two days to empty out the pool and then people would sleep where the pool is yeah and you have fresh water supplies for for three weeks three weeks this is what it's like being russia's neighbor the two countries sharing an 800-mile border and a long complicated history for decades finland had opted not to join any military alliance an effort meant to appease russia's security concerns as a result finland had to ensure it could fend for itself and we have to take care of the citizens and that's the main main reason that we we have this kind of system so it's not just the bunkers conscription is still mandatory for men and the country has about 900 000 reservists and that's why russian can't come here because we are so strong here there's a historic sense that you should always be prepared it might not be this generation or the next generation but russia is likely to attack finland in some way but the very scenarios finland has spent years preparing for [Music] now playing out in ukraine where some have been living underground for weeks the invasion marking a turning point for relations between finland and russia what are finland and russia's relations now effectively they have never been as bad public support in finland for joining nato skyrocketing from roughly 30 percent before the war to a record high of more than 70 percent in its aftermath we have so horrible neighbor on the east side of finland we have we don't have any other option than kodu natal finland's parliament will now take up the issue and hold a vote in the coming days neighboring sweden is expected to follow suit as for nato's response finland sweden will be warmly welcomed and expect the process to go quickly finland's accession would more than double russia's land border with nato it would also expand nato's influence in the arctic and further unify the west nato would also grow stronger nato would now have two more old democratic countries both with really capable militaries so that effectively all of northern europe would now be one region to defend but there are those that are skeptical veronica jon gonzalo is one of the few members of parliament who doesn't think finland should join i'm afraid that the nato membership will increase actually the tensions in the baltic sea region and also will increase the tensions in finland especially regarding the eastern border russia responding to finland's announcement threatening to take retaliatory steps to stop threats to its national security earlier this week russian president putin once again justifying the war in ukraine by saying nato had created an absolutely unacceptable threat to russia he has for years said finland and sweden joining is a red line finns say now is the time to act while putin is busy with ukraine there are concerns though about what could happen after finland and sweden apply but before they formally become a part of the alliance the two countries now trying to win over security assurances from allies the uk already formally announcing to stand with them in the event of a disaster or in the event of an attack on either of us then yes we will come to each other's assistance including with military assistance in the end the war in ukraine prompting finland even with its 50 000 shelters to decide it can no longer go it alone and likely giving putin the very thing he dreaded nato's expansion the united states will defend every inch of nato territory with the full force of american power we are a small nation we need help we need friends nato might be that the friend that we need fascinating just how prepared they are our thanks to inez for that hi everyone george stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the abc news youtube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel and don't forget to download the abc news app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

Views: 25,709

Keywords: abc, abcnl, ambasaddor, border, complicated, finland, helsinki, ii, join, nato, neutrality, news, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-84682343, past, prime, russia, russian, shared, to, wants, war, warnings, world

Id: eR5Tv5AaUkQ

Length: 6min 50sec (410 seconds)

Published: Thu May 12 2022