Expanding NATO, Infuriating Moscow
"We have to be prepared for all kinds of actions from Russia.""The difference between being a partner and being a member is very clear and will remain so. There is no other way to have security guarantees than under NATO's deterrence and common defence as guaranteed by NATO's Article 5.""I won't give any kind of timetable when we will make our decisions, but I think it will happen quite fast -- within weeks, not within months."Finland Prime Minister Sanna Marin"I see no point in delaying this analysis, or the process.""We have elections in September, so later in the year, we want to have more focus on that [the decision to join NATO]."Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Anderson
 |
| The Swedish prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, (left) receives the Finnish prime minister, Sanna Marin, before a meeting in Stockholm. Photograph: Paul Wennerholm/EPA |
More and understandable consequences leading to a rush for guarantees in numbers and strength for Russia's near-abroad neighbours, nervous lest they be next in line to fall to a surprise Russian invasion, much as they are witnessing occurring in Ukraine. Their neighbour, under a president that appears to be increasingly emotionally unstable, a neighbour whose decision to invade a long-suffering country it has a long cultural-political history with, and in the process unleashing a no-holds-barred vicious military assault, destroying the country's infrastructure, has instructed Finland and Sweden what their future might also look like.
Russia has deliberately indulged their president, determined to wreak total havoc on Ukraine for having ignored Vladimir Putin's warning not to involve itself in an association with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO's presence ever more closely encroaching on Russia's near-abroad in eastern Europe has enraged the Kremlin whose 'red lines' the Western alliance has set aside as being of no account. The NATO presence has in effect, destroyed Mr. Putin's long-range plans of drawing former Soviet satellites back into the Russian fold.
Both Finland and Sweden saw their future in eastern Europe as non-aligned, choosing neither the West nor the East to support, embracing the concept of neutrality as the preferred way to lead to peace. Finland's 1,300-km border with Russia makes it fully as vulnerable to a Russian incursion as Ukraine was before the invasion, despite lacking that special emotional-cultural Slavic tradition. Both it and Sweden appear ready to apply for NATO membership in the shadow of Russia's Ukraine invasion.
It is without doubt the ferocity of the Russian advance into Ukraine and its intention to unseat Ukraine's Western-oriented government, along with the unexpected defence mounted by that same government that unleashed Mr. Putin's cutthroat instincts that has led to Russian troops deliberately targeting civilian enclaves and in the process of temporary occupation in the north, wantonly raping and murdering civilians, that has motivated Finland and Sweden to protect themselves from a similar, unprovoked invasion.
Finland evidently plans to apply for membership in the U.S.- led alliance in the space of the coming weeks. While both nations have collaborated with NATO in an informal partnership reflecting common interests and shared values, actual membership is an altogether different prospect. They are risking Moscow's 'red line' and the consequences that may come of doing so, threats they have already received from Moscow.
For both Sweden and Finland, the arrangement with NATO was satisfactory to them up to the moment when Russia's invasion preparations which it constantly denied, took action in a surprise move, despite months of troop buildup at the border of Ukraine. The serious matter of their own now-vulnerable security pushed them into an action they would not otherwise have contemplated, abandoning their reliance on neutrality to safeguard their national interests.
This is a hard decision for Sweden, a country that prided itself on its neutral stance, a country to which conflict has been absent for several centuries. As a neutral state during World War Two, Sweden emerged unscathed, content in its unaffiliated role. Finland's artillery force considered the largest in western Europe, is a plus for NATO and a prospective strategic loss for Russia which had hoped to persuade Finland that its future is with the Russian Federation. For Finland, once was enough, of a Russian invasion.
 |
| The flags of NATO member countries are seen ahead of NATO foreign ministers meeting at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday, April 6, 2022. |
Labels: Finland, Membership Applications, NATO, NATO Invasion of East Europe, Russia, Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Sweden
posted by Pieface @ Friday, April 15, 2022
<< Home