Finland and Sweden are approaching NATO membership
The Finnish government announced that a “new era” is underway after announcing its intention to apply for membership in NATO, hours before the Swedish ruling party on Sunday supported a plan to join the Transatlantic Alliance middle of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Russia has long insisted that NATO move closer to its borders, so the development will certainly further irritate Moscow. President Vladimir Putin has already warned his Finnish counterpart on Saturday that the relationships would be “negatively affected”.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, speaking on Sunday after top diplomats from the alliance’s 30 member states met in Berlin, said that the process for Finland and Sweden to join can be very fast. He also expressed hope that Ukraine could win the war as Russian military progress appears to falter.
In Finland, President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced that their country would seek NATO membership during a joint press conference at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki. The formerly neutral Nordic country shares a long border with Russia.
“This is a historic day. A new era is beginning,” Niinisto said.
The Finnish Parliament is expected to approve the decision in the coming days. A formal membership application will then be submitted to NATO Headquarters in Brussels, probably sometime next week.
Sweden also took a step closer to applying for membership in NATO after the ruling Social Democratic Party supported joining the transatlantic alliance.
– The Social Democrats’ party board has at its meeting today decided that the party will work for Sweden to apply for membership in NATO, the party says in a statement.
The plan to join the alliance will be discussed in Sweden’s Riksdag on Monday and Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson’s cabinet will announce this later the same day.
“Russia’s war in Ukraine is not going as Moscow had planned,” Stoltenberg said via video link to the NATO meeting in Berlin as he recovers from a covid-19 infection. “They failed to take Kyiv. They are withdrawing from all of Kharkiv. Their major offensive in the Donbas has stalled. Russia is not reaching its strategic goals.”
“Ukraine can win this war,” he said, adding that NATO must continue to increase its military support to the country.
Sweden has also already taken measures against joining the alliance, while Georgia’s bid is discussed again despite terrible warnings from Moscow about the consequences if its neighbor becomes part of NATO.
The Nordic NATO member Norway said that it strongly welcomed Finland’s decision to apply for membership. Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt described the Helsinki move as “a turning point” in Nordic defense and security policy.
– A Finnish membership in NATO will be good for Finland, good for the Nordic region and good for NATO. Finland has Norway’s full support, says Huitfeldt in comments sent to the Associated Press.
Huitfeldt said the Norwegian government would facilitate “rapid consent to ratification of the Norwegian parliament” for Finland’s accession to NATO.
“We now see an unprecedented unity in NATO. With Finnish membership, we will further strengthen the Nordic flank of the military alliance,” said Huitfeldt.
Stoltenberg said he was confident that the accession process for Finland and Sweden could be accelerated. In the meantime, the alliance would increase its presence in the Baltic region to deter Russian threats, he said.
“All allies realize the historical scope of the moment,” Stoltenberg added.
That feeling was repeated by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
“Sweden and Finland, if you are ready, we are ready,” she said.
But NATO member Turkey has expressed concern that the two countries are joining, claiming that they support Kurdish militants whom Ankara considers to be terrorists.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has been rebelling against Turkey since 1984 and the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people. Turkey has also been outraged by US support for PKK-linked Syrian Kurdish militants to fight the Islamic State group.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told reporters in Berlin on Sunday that Finland and Sweden had also imposed restrictions on defense sales to Turkey, which he called “unacceptable”.
“It is not because we are against NATO expansion but because we believe that countries that support terrorism and pursue such policies against us should not be NATO allies,” Çavuşoğlu said.
But Stoltenberg said that he understands that Turkey does not strive to keep Finland or Sweden out, but rather to have its problems fixed first.
“Turkey has made it clear that their intention is not to block membership,” he said.
Nevertheless, Turkey’s emergence of its complaints has led to concerns in Washington and Brussels that other NATO members could also use the admissions process as a way of distorting Allies’ concessions, possibly complicating and delaying accession.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who spoke with Çavuşoğlu and will see him again on the sidelines of a special meeting of the UN Security Council later this week in New York, declined to comment on these concerns. But he expressed confidence that all NATO members would support the tenders.
“I heard almost across the board a very strong support for Finland and Sweden to join the alliance, if that is what they choose to do, and I am very confident that we will reach an agreement,” he said after the meeting in Berlin.
In addition to the Berlin meeting, Blinken met earlier on Sunday with the Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba to discuss the impact of the war and how to get Ukraine’s grain into international markets.
Britain’s top diplomat said NATO members would also discuss security issues outside Europe during their meeting on Sunday – a reference to growing concerns among democratic nations about China’s emergence.
“In addition to protecting Euro-Atlantic security, we must also look out for Indo-Pacific security,” said Foreign Minister Liz Truss.
Denmark’s Foreign Minister, Jeppe Kofod, rejected proposals that Putin’s objections could prevent the alliance from admitting new members.
“We now see a world where the number one enemy of democracy is Putin and the thinking he represents,” Kofod said, adding that NATO would also stand with other countries, such as Georgia, which he said was “instrumentalized” by Russia.