The United States expresses confidence in addressing Sweden, Finland’s security concerns over NATO’s application
The White House has said that the United States is confident in tackling Sweden’s and Finland’s security problems after applying for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Both countries fear that they may be vulnerable to attacks from Russia after its invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
According to White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki, “We are confident that we can find ways to address any concerns that both countries may have about the time between an application for NATO membership and the formal accession to the Alliance.”
Russia has threatened both Sweden and Finland, which will have negative consequences if they choose to join NATO.
But it decides to attack them anyway, the two military non-aligned countries do not have enough capacity to defeat it and therefore lean towards NATO because its Article 5 clearly states that an attack on a member is an attack on all members.
Even if the Nordic neighboring countries both decide to join NATO, the approval process can take up to a year, as all 30 members need to ratify a membership offer.
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In an attempt to insure both countries, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told SVT: “We must remember that from the moment Sweden potentially applies, and NATO says that they want Sweden to join, there is a very strong NATO obligation. to guarantee Sweden’s security. “
“We have several ways to do this, including an increased presence of NATO and NATO forces around Sweden and the Baltic Sea,” he added.
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin and Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde have both met with US officials to obtain “security guarantees”.
(With input from agencies)
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