Finland and Sweden may soon become NATO members
According to authorities, Finland and Sweden may soon join NATO, a move that would infuriate Moscow and highlight Russia’s strategic folly in invading Ukraine.
According to NATO officials, negotiations regarding Sweden and Finland joining the union have escalated since Russia’s incursion, and US senior State Department sources claimed the idea came up during this week’s NATO foreign ministerial, which was attended by the foreign ministers of Stockholm and Helsinki.
The conversations, according to officials, demonstrate how Vladimir Putin’s invasion has only helped to re-energize and unify NATO, which is the polar opposite of Putin’s stated aims prior to the conflict. Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked NATO to halt its eastward expansion and new member acceptance, stating that the union poses a security danger to Russia. On the other hand, NATO has increased its assistance for Ukraine and is preparing to welcome new members.
As Russia’s conflict in Ukraine continues on, public opinion in both countries has shifted significantly in favour of joining the defensive alliance, with one former Finnish Prime Minister telling a foreign news outlet that membership “was pretty much a done deal on the 24th of February, when Russia invaded.”
Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, declared on Friday that her country’s parliament will consider NATO membership “in the next weeks,” with the objective of finalising discussions “before midsummer.”
“I believe we will have very cautious talks,” she added, “but we will not spend any more time in this process than is absolutely necessary since the matter is, of course, quite important.”
The Kremlin has stated that if Sweden and Finland join NATO, it will be necessary to “rebalance the situation.”
“We’ll have to make our western flank more sophisticated in terms of securing our security,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Sky News.
A Russian state-owned aeroplane breached Finnish airspace on Friday by launching two cyber-attacks. Despite the fact that the two countries share an 800-mile border, both Stubb and the Finnish official said Helsinki anticipates such assaults and rejected the chance of a violent response from Moscow if Finland joins NATO.
According to a European official, several NATO members are evaluating the possibility of a Russian attack before Finland is protected by the alliance.
“On the intermediate phase,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said this week, “I’m certain that we will find ways to resolve concerns they may have throughout the period between the prospective application and the ultimate ratification.”
According to the Pentagon, neither country has requested assistance, but “if a country calls and asks for the United States’ cooperation, absolutely we’ll take that into consideration,” says the Pentagon.
