Finland and Sweden may soon join NATO, a move that would certainly enrage Moscow and emphasize Russia’s geopolitical blunder in invading Ukraine, according to officials.
NATO officials told an International media outlet that since Russia’s invasion, discussions about Sweden and Finland joining the bloc have intensified, and US senior State Department officials said the issue came up at this week’s NATO foreign ministerial, which was attended by the foreign ministers of Stockholm and Helsinki.
Officials claimed the discussions highlight how Vladimir Putin’s invasion has only served to re-energize and unify NATO, which is the polar opposite of Putin’s professed intentions before the war. Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged NATO to stop expanding east and accepting new members, claiming that the alliance was a threat to Russian security. NATO, on the other hand, has bolstered its support for Ukraine and is gearing up to welcome new members.
As Russia’s war in Ukraine drags on, public opinion in both nations has swung substantially in favor of joining the defense alliance, with one former Finnish Prime Minister telling a foreign news website that joining “was pretty much a done deal on the 24th of February, when Russia attacked.”
Sanna Marin, Finland’s prime minister, announced Friday that her country’s parliament will examine possible NATO membership “over the coming weeks,” with the goal of concluding the talks “before midsummer.”
“I believe we will have very cautious discussions,” she said, “but we will not spend any more time than is necessary in this process because the issue is, of course, quite serious.”
If Sweden and Finland join NATO, the Kremlin said that it will have to “rebalance the situation.”
“In terms of ensuring our security, we’ll have to make our western flank more advanced,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sky News.
On Friday, a Russian state-owned jet launched two cyber-attacks and violated Finnish airspace. Both Stubb and the Finnish official said Helsinki expects such attacks and dismissed the possibility of a harsh response from Moscow, if Finland joins NATO, despite the fact that the two countries share an 800-mile border.
According to a European official, some NATO countries are considering the potential of a Russian assault before Finland falls under the alliance’s protection.
“On the intermediate period, I’m certain that we will find methods to address concerns they may have over the period between the prospective application and the final ratification,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated this week.
There have been no requests for assistance from either country, according to the Pentagon, but “if a country calls and asks for the United States’ cooperation, absolutely we’ll take that into consideration,”
