The Finnish Parliament approved the proposal for submitting an application for NATO membership

Today, the Finnish parliament approved the proposal for submitting an application for membership in the NATO military alliance with 188 votes in favor and eight against, said the speaker of the parliament, Mati Vanhanen, reports Reuters.

Finnish President Sauli Ninisto confirmed two days ago that his country will apply for NATO membership.

Russia, which shares a long land border with Finland, has previously said it would be a mistake for Helsinki to join the transatlantic alliance and would harm bilateral ties.

By the way, Ninisto previously said that his last conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin about his country's efforts to join NATO was measured and did not contain any threats.

"He confirmed that he thought it was a mistake, that we were not being threatened. Overall, I would say the discussion was very calm and cool," Ninisto told CNN earlier, as reported by Reuters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday retracted his threats to Sweden and Finland over their decision to apply for NATO membership, saying Moscow has no problem with those countries joining the US-led military alliance. Although the Russian leader said that Moscow would take steps if NATO moved additional troops or equipment to the territory of the new members - which Finland and Sweden have already rejected as a possibility - he said that NATO expansion does not pose a threat in itself.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, Anne Linde, signed the application for that country's membership in NATO earlier today, it was announced on the official Twitter account of the representative office of Sweden at the Alliance.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated earlier that Finland and Sweden should not be admitted to NATO due to their insufficiently harsh attitude towards Kurdish armed groups such as the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which Turkey, as well as the EU, consider terrorist organizations.

The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, expressed his belief that Sweden and Finland will receive "strong support" from all EU members for NATO membership, saying that this increases the unity of the Union and makes it stronger.