NATO allies sign accession protocols for Finland and Sweden in “real historic moment”
London On Tuesday, NATO’s 30 ambassadors signed accession protocols for Sweden and Finland to join the Transatlantic Military Alliance. It was the next step in the process of NATO’s most significant expansion since the mid-1990s, and a direct response from the Alliance to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The minutes must still be ratified by the legislative assemblies of each allied government before the two Nordic countries become official members, but the group’s general secretary Jens Stoltenberg called it “truly a historic moment for Finland, Sweden and NATO.”
“With 32 nations around the table, we will be even stronger,” Stoltenberg said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has pointed to NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe as one of the key factors that led him to order the invasion of Ukraine in February. But when Finland and Sweden become full members, it will place two more NATO nations on or very close to Russia’s land borders.
One requirement Russia placed on Ukraine before the invasion was that it commit itself never to join NATO, in part because of Moscow’s concerns about having NATO countries at its immediate border.
“With Sweden and Finland, we do not have the problems we have with Ukraine. They want to join NATO, continue,” Putin said on Russian state television last week. But he added a warning: “If military contingents and infrastructure are deployed there, we must respond in kind and create the same threat to the territories from which threats against us are created.”
Every future NATO member must have the blessing of all existing members, and Turkey initially said it would block Finland’s and Sweden’s offer to join unless Turkish opposition members of the European nations were handed over to Ankara. Turkey signed an agreement with the Nordic countries at a NATO summit last week and released that threatbut it has warned that it may still block their connection if it feels like they are not delivering at the end of the purchase.
Stoltenberg said on Tuesday that he expects ratification to proceed.
“There were security issues that needed to be addressed, and we did what we always do within NATO – we found a common ground,” he said.
It may still take months for Sweden and Finland to become official NATO members, as each nation in the alliance has its own specific legislative procedures to go through. But representatives from the two countries can now attend NATO meetings, even if they do not have the right to vote, and they will have greater access to intelligence.
Prior to ratification, however, they are not protected under the NATO alliance’s mutual defense clause, which states that an attack on one is an attack on all. So far, that clause – Article 5 of the NATO Charter – has only been invoked once, by the United States when it called on its allies to help overthrow the Taliban regime in Afghanistan that enabled al-Qaeda to attack on September 11, 2001.
“We will be even stronger and our people will be even more secure as we face the biggest security crisis in decades,” Stoltenberg said on Tuesday.