Biden signs Finland, Sweden NATO membership
President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed the documents sealing US approval of Finland and Sweden’s bid to join NATO, making the US the 23rd ally to sign on to the countries’ membership in a rebuke from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, both Finland and Sweden had avoided military alliances. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization binds its current 30 member states for mutual defense against an attack on a member.
Ukraine is not a member of NATO, but as the country increasingly turned toward the West, Russia sought to block its neighbor from that change and a potential bid to join the alliance.
“Putin thought he could tear us apart when this started,” Biden said Tuesday. “Instead, he gets exactly what he didn’t want.”
Biden signed the document approving Finland and Sweden’s membership at the White House on Tuesday, with the vice president and the two countries’ ambassadors behind him.
The US has led NATO countries in aid to Ukraine, committing $9.8 billion since Biden took office, with an additional $1 billion in military aid packages announced on Monday.
“Today we see all too clearly how NATO remains an indispensable alliance for the world of today and tomorrow,” Biden said.
“Our alliance is closer than ever. It is more united than ever. And when Finland and Sweden raise the number of allies to 32, we will be stronger than ever.”
The US Senate approved the membership of Finland and Sweden in a 95-1 vote last week.
Speaking to the Senate before the vote, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell cited Finland’s and Sweden’s well-funded, modernizing militaries and their experience working with US forces and weapons systems, calling it a “national security slam dunk” in the US.
Another seven countries must sign before the two countries become official members. Turkey initially opposed their joining, but the country’s president backed down after negotiations ahead of a critical NATO summit in June.
The 30-nation political and military alliance provides members with a forum to coordinate defense and security-related issues to solve problems and prevent conflicts, with the goal of peaceful resolution. If these efforts fail, the countries have the military power to conduct operations, with a commitment to collective defense of each other.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.