Officials from the traditionally neutral Nordic countries of Sweden and Finland have confirmed Monday that they will simultaneously apply for membership to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This is amid growing public support as Russia continues its brutal invasion in Ukraine.
Two newspapers — Finland’s Iltalehti and Sweden’s Expressen — reported that the countries’ applications could occur as soon as the middle of next month. The Swedish daily Aftonbladet reportedUSA and UK have given Sweden concrete promises regarding their support and protection during the NATO application process.
According to The Guardian:
Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, said then that her country, which shares a 1,300km (810 mile) border with Russia, would decide whether to apply to join the alliance “quite fast, in weeks not months,” despite the risk of infuriating Moscow.
Her Swedish counterpart, Magdalena Andersson, said Sweden had to be “prepared for all kinds of actions from Russia” and that “everything had changed” when Moscow attacked Ukraine.
As recently as last month the center-left Andersson rebuffed opposition calls to NATO membership. saying that doing so would “further destabilize this area of Europe and increase tensions.”
Recent polling indicates that just over halfSwedes and more than six in 10Finland supports their respective countries joining NATO.
However, peace activists in both countries have spoken out against NATO membership, with Agnes Hellström of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society saying “we don’t think it would make us safer or the world more secure.”
“It would make us part of a nuclear doctrine, and our possibility to be a voice for democracy, prevention, and disarmament would decrease,” she told Democracy Now! This month, earlier.
Nine reasons NATO should close Sweden and Finland’s doors https://t.co/nOm5HtNxN5
— Medea Benjamin (@medeabenjamin) April 25, 2022
Experts and anti-war activists have long argued that NATO enlargement — and especially its expansion into former Soviet and Warsaw Pact nations — is highly provocative toward Russia. Moscow has warned that further NATO expansion would force Russia to bolster its military capabilities — including by deploying more nuclear weapons — along its borders with alliance members.
