After Finland announced last week that it would seek to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) “without delay,” Sweden, another formerly neutral European country, began weighing whether to join the alliance. Now it appears that both countries will apply for NATO membership.
Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said Friday that her country would follow Finland, arguing that “Swedish NATO membership would raise the threshold for military conflicts and thus have a conflict-preventing effect in northern Europe.”
Sweden’s Social Democratic Workers’ Party is currently in power and had several internal debates over abandoning its decades-long opposition to NATO membership.
On Monday, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson doubled down on the position that Sweden would seek membership.
“The best for our country’s security is that Sweden applies for membership in NATO and that we do it now together with Finland,” Andersson said.
The reversal of Sweden’s decades-long policy is due to Russia’s military action in Ukraine and a visit by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to the Swedish capital of Stockholm.
During the visit, Johnson told Swedish leaders that the United Kingdom would help defend Sweden from any potential attacks from Russia.
Sweden’s decision not to join the alliance dates back several decades to when the Soviet Union was still in existence. Finland, which neighbors Sweden to the east, signed a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union in 1948.
Under the terms of the Finno-Soviet Treaty, Finland would remain neutral. Sweden has always been a close ally of Finland and therefore chose not to join NATO for fear of angering the Soviet government.
The Russian government has already stated opposition to Finland’s move, which is unsurprising considering one of its stated reasons for the Ukrainian invasion was to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO.
“Finland’s accession to NATO will cause serious damage to bilateral Russian-Finnish relations and maintenance of stability and security in the Northern European region,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Russia will be forced to take retaliatory steps, both of a military-technical and other nature, in order to neutralize the threats to its national security that arise from this.”
However, on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin made contrasting remarks at a gathering in Moscow of leaders from the member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Russia-backed military alliance.
“As for the expansion [of NATO], including through new members of the alliance — Finland, Sweden — Russia wants to inform you that it has no problems with these states,” Putin said. “Therefore, in this sense, expansion on account of these countries does not pose a direct threat to Russia.”
Finland and Sweden could still face an obstacle to joining the alliance from NATO itself. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that his country was “not favorable” toward the idea of the two nations joining NATO. He suggested Turkey might block any potential attempts at gaining admittance.
“We are following developments concerning Sweden and Finland, but we are not of a favorable opinion,” Erdogan told reporters on Friday.
Erdogan went on to say that Turkey did not want to repeat the country’s past “mistake” of agreeing to admit Greece into NATO’s military wing in 1980. He claimed NATO support allowed Greece “to take an attitude against Turkey.”
NATO decisions, including those concerning membership, do not involve traditional voting. The organization is governed by consensus, meaning all 30 member nations must unanimously agree to new admissions.
If Turkey rejects their inclusion, Finland and Sweden’s membership bids will not be approved.