Sweden and Finland to Officially Join NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) formally invited Finland and Sweden to join the alliance Wednesday after the Nordic nations made a pact with Turkey to avoid supporting the Kurds.
The Kurds are a group of nearly 30 million people fighting to establish their own state in the Middle East. Turkey considers them terrorists, but they are friends to the US. As part of the deal, Sweden and Finland also promised to cooperate with Turkey on extraditions of accused Kurdish terrorists, terror financing, and related issues.
With Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s opposition withdrawn, all 30 NATO members endorsed the invitation to Sweden and Finland. With the new membership, NATO has roughly doubled the land border its members share with Russia.
“Today, we have decided to invite Finland and Sweden to become members of NATO, and agreed to sign Accession Protocols,” announced NATO during its recent summit in Madrid, Spain. “The accession of Finland and Sweden will make them safer, NATO stronger, and the Euro-Atlantic area more secure.”
Recent months have seen NATO and its allies launch their biggest mobilization since the end of the Cold War as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced the alliance to shift focus from concerns about China, climate change, and hybrid warfare.
“NATO was a social club for 30 years,” joked retired US Army Colonel David E. Johnson. “Suddenly it’s a military alliance again.”
A the summit, officials began talks on how to expand and organize the number of troops under NATO’s command and how to replace armament stockpiles following massive shipments to Ukraine. According to Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, the alliance will increase the number of troops within its rapid response force from 40,000 to more than 300,000. Member states have also pledged a significant boost in military spending to alliance-member outlays as Russia’s destruction in Ukraine continues.
On Wednesday, the Biden Administration reiterated plans to boost land, sea, air, and cyber defenses (for the US) and to establish a permanent troop presence in Poland.
“In a moment when Putin has shattered peace in Europe and attacked the very, very tenets of rule-based order, the United States and our allies, we’re going to step up,” said President Joe Biden. “We’re stepping up.”
NATO has also offered to “step up tailored political and practical support” to former Soviet nations Georgia, Moldova, Bosnia, Ukraine, and Herzegovina. Those nations were invited to the summit despite not belonging to the alliance.
Other non-NATO members who participated in talks include Australia, Japan, and South Korea.
Russia described the invitation to Sweden and Finland as “destabilizing,” but has no power to change the situation.
Sources:
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NATO invites Sweden, Finland become members in wake of Russia’s Ukraine war
They should team up and kick Putin’s ass