NATO invites Sweden and Finland to join the alliance because Russia is considered a “direct threat” – National
On Wednesday, NATO invited Sweden and Finland to join the military alliance in one of the biggest changes in European security in decades after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced Helsinki and Stockholm to relinquish their traditional neutrality.
NATO’s 30 allies made the decision at its Madrid summit and also agreed to formally treat Russia as the “most significant and direct threat to the security of the allies”, according to a statement from the summit.
“Today, we have decided to invite Finland and Sweden to join NATO,” NATO leaders said in their declaration, after Turkey lifted a veto on Finland and Sweden’s accession.
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Ratification in Allied parliaments is likely to take up to a year, but once that is done, Finland and Sweden will be covered by NATO’s Article 5 collective defense clause, which puts them under the US umbrella’s protective umbrella umbrella.
“We will ensure that we can protect all allies, including Finland and Sweden,” Stoltenberg said.
In the meantime, the Allies will increase their troop presence in the Nordic region, hold more military exercises and naval patrols in the Baltic Sea to calm Sweden and Finland.
After four hours of talks in Madrid on Tuesday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan agreed with his Finnish and Swedish counterparts on a series of security measures to enable the two Nordic countries to overcome the Turkish veto imposed by Ankara in May over its concerns about terrorism.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded in 1949 to defend itself against the Soviet threat. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 gave the organization a new impetus after failures in Afghanistan and internal disagreement during the era of former US President Donald Trump.
“We are sending a strong message to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin: ‘You will not win,'” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a speech.
Allies also agreed on NATO’s first new strategic concept – its master plan document – in a decade. Russia, formerly classified as a strategic partner of NATO, is now identified as NATO’s main threat.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is “a direct threat to our Western way of life”, added Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo, citing the wider impact of the war, such as rising energy and food prices.
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The planning document also cited China as a challenge for the first time, setting the stage for the 30 allies to plan to deal with Beijing’s transformation from a benign trading partner to a fast-growing competitor from the Arctic to cyberspace.
Unlike Russia, whose war in Ukraine has raised serious concerns in the Baltics about an attack on NATO territory, China is not an opponent, NATO leaders said. But Stoltenberg has repeatedly called on Beijing to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow says is a “special operation.”
At the summit, NATO agreed on a long-term support package for Ukraine, in addition to the billions of dollars already promised in arms and financial support.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said weapons would continue to be delivered to Kyiv, which is seeking help to overpower Russian artillery, especially in eastern Ukraine, where Russia is slowly advancing in a grinding war of attrition.
“The message is: We will continue to do so – and to do so intensively – for as long as is necessary to enable Ukraine to defend itself,” Scholz said.
The Western Alliance also agrees that major allies such as the United States, Germany, Britain and Canada will allocate troops, weapons and equipment to the Baltics in advance and intensify training exercises. NATO also aims to have as many as 300,000 troops ready for deployment in the event of a conflict, part of an expanded NATO task force.
Russia achieves the opposite of what Putin sought when he started his war in Ukraine, in part to counter NATO expansion, Western leaders say.
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Both Finland, which has a 1,300 km border with Russia, and Sweden, home to the founder of the Nobel Peace Prize, are now set to bring well-trained soldiers into NATO, in order to give the Alliance the Baltic Sea superiority.
“One of the most important messages from President Putin … was that he was against any further NATO enlargement,” Stoltenberg said on Tuesday night. “He wanted less NATO. Now President Putin is getting more NATO at its borders.”
