{"id":158332,"date":"2023-04-04T17:43:01","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T00:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=158332"},"modified":"2023-04-04T17:43:01","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T00:43:01","slug":"secretary-of-defense-lloyd-j-austin-iii-on-finlands-accession-to-nato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=158332","title":{"rendered":"Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III on Finland&#8217;s Accession to NATO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;I congratulate Finland on becoming the 31st Member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on the day of the Alliance\u2019s 74th anniversary.  Finland is a proud democracy whose highly capable military will greatly strengthen NATO. Its decision to join the Alliance reflects the appeal of NATO\u2019s democratic values, as well as NATO\u2019s vital role in upholding the rules-based international order. I look forward to working alongside Finland as an Ally, and to seeing Sweden join the Alliance as soon as possible. I will travel to Sweden later this month to discuss a range of regional security issues as well as their planning for NATO accession.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/dodlogo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/dodlogo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/dodlogo.jpg 225w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/dodlogo-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/dodlogo-30x30.jpg 30w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>More than a year into President Vladimir Putin\u2019s cruel and unprovoked war against Ukraine, NATO is more unified and more resolute than ever. Putin\u2019s war is not the result of NATO enlargement\u2014it is the cause of NATO enlargement. And the United States is determined to stand with Ukraine\u2019s brave defenders for as long as it takes.<\/p>\n<p>On this historic day, I join all of our Allies in welcoming Finland to NATO. Together, we will continue the Alliance\u2019s urgent, vital work to support the forces of freedom, defend every inch of NATO territory, and build a safer world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;I congratulate Finland on becoming the 31st Member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on the day of the Alliance\u2019s 74th anniversary. Finland is a proud democracy whose highly capable military will greatly strengthen NATO. Its decision to join the Alliance reflects the appeal of NATO\u2019s democratic values, as well as NATO\u2019s vital role [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/dodlogo.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=158332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158333,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158332\/revisions\/158333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=158332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=158332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=158332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}