Finland’s parliament votes sure to NATO

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

President Sauli Niinisto and the government determined officially 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 against the applying, Speaker Matti Vanhanen mentioned.

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Overseas Minister Pekka Haavisto mentioned the decision was no purpose to celebrate because "there's battle in Europe".

"Finland's membership in NATO won't change our basic pondering that we will all the time seek peaceful options and we're a peace-loving nation that may at first search diplomatic solutions to each conflict," he mentioned throughout the debate.

Opponents to the appliance included some lawmakers from the Left Alliance, a 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 would not be a risk only through the application course of but reasonably a new and permanent condition of our overseas and safety policy," he said.

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 very large variety of experts and having obtained 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 advised reporters.

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

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