4.16.22
Finland and Sweden appear to be edging closer to joining NATO, a move that leaders and experts see as the best way to confront Russia as it escalates its rhetoric on nuclear weapons. The conflict in Ukraine has forced the two Nordic nations to reconsider their absence from the alliance forged after World War II, which commits members to defending one another if attacked. “Mr. Putin is proving NATO relevant and necessary,” said Sean Monaghan, a visiting fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “If NATO didn’t exist, you’d have to invent it.” “Finland in particular but also Sweden are very stoic on these matters and see Russia with clear eyes. And that’s why I think ultimately they will join NATO because they’ve seen Russia’s revisionist threat has been building. And now it has boiled over with the invasion of Ukraine, and there’s kind of no way back, and the best way for them to secure themselves against the threat posed by Russia is to join NATO.” Finnish Minister for European Affairs Tytti Tuppurainen said Friday that it is “highly likely” her country will join NATO, calling Russia’s “brutal” war in Ukraine a “wake-up call to us all.” That eagerness could also put more pressure on Sweden, which would be left as the only Nordic country outside the alliance and which would break its longstanding practice of neutrality by joining.
“The fact that these countries were not on track to join NATO three months ago and now they are is definitely a response to Russian aggression. Russia should realize its aggression against Ukraine has spooked a lot of countries, even to the point that a country like Sweden, which has a 200-year history of nonalignment, is now looking at actually joining NATO,” said Kurt Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO who also served as a special envoy on Ukraine. “Finlandization was coined as a word to describe the Soviet Union’s insistence that Finland not exercise its own choices on security. Now they’re going to do it anyway. So in that sense, these are definitely responses to Russian aggression, and it’s probably good for Russia to realize that,” he added. NATO expansionists are hopeful the two countries will formally signal their intention before NATO’s June meeting in Madrid, where members could sign an accession protocol that would also need to be individually approved by each country’s legislative body. Experts say they are likely to be welcomed into the alliance.
www.reuters.com
