activities. as an ally, finland will contribute to nato s collective deterrent and defence. . membership of the alliance provides security for finland. finland on the other hand provides security for the alliance. the finland commitment to security of member states will be reliable as an ally. that strengthens regional stability. membership is not targeted against anyone, nor does it change the foundations or objectives of finland s security policy. finland is a stable and predictable nordic country that seeks peaceful resolution of disputes. the principles and values that are important to finland will continue to guide ourforeign policy important to finland will continue to guide our foreign policy also important to finland will continue to guide ourforeign policy also in the future. nato membership does not change everything. but being an ally requires finland to adapt to new ways of thinking and some changes in legislation as well. a lot has already been done. for years, w
finland, of course, shares a very long land border, 1340 kilometres long, with russia, and that is 832 miles for those that way inclined. the frontier with russia is a long one and finland felt that it needed very much to secure part of this defensive alliance, so we saw there the ceremony a bit earlier when the finnish foreign minister handed the file, the accession document to the us secretary of state, and now you can see a beautiful, sunny day in brussels outside the nato headquarters. now, we know for a fact that in previous years finland and sweden both adopted a policy of nonalignment. it s kind of like a neutral policy but that all changed with the war in ukraine and public