The Sweden followed in the footsteps of Finland which formally announced its candidacy for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and informed that it will also request its adhesion to the alliance.
Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson highlighted that this means a new “era” for the Scandinavian country. “We left an era to enter a new one,” she declared. “The Swedish ambassador to NATO will present the Stockholm candidacy shortly,” she added. The two countries, which were always neutral and did not join any alliance, in a historic decision, decided to end this position as a result of the war of Russia with the Ukraine which is already three months old. “We hope that accession will not take more than a year”, declared the Swedish head of government.
In order for the Nordic countries to be accepted, ratification by the members of the Alliance is required. So far, only the Turkey was against. However, on Sunday, the 15th, she said she was willing to talk about joining. As was to be expected, this decision resulted in an immediate response from Russia, which declared that Sweden and Finland’s NATO candidatures were a “grave mistake”. “It is an additional serious mistake, the consequences of which will be far-reaching,” Deputy Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
“For us, it is clear that the security of Sweden and Finland will not be reinforced by this decision”, he said before highlighting that “the level of tension will increase”. Riabkov explained that Russia’s response “will depend on the practical consequences of joining” the two Nordic countries to NATO. Finland, in particular, shares 1,300 kilometers of border with Russia.
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Vladimir Putin, Russian President, also spoke out on the matter and said that he does not consider the Nordic decision to join NATO as a threat, but that the presence of military infrastructure could provoke a response from Moscow. “It does not pose a direct threat to us, but the expansion of military infrastructure to these territories will certainly generate a response from us,” Putin told a meeting of a Moscow-led military alliance. the spokesperson of Kremlin Dmitri Peskov, told a news conference that he is not convinced that Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership will improve the security of the Europe and that, unlike Ukraine’s interest in being part of the Alliance – Russia claimed that one of the reasons for invading the country was the interest of Eastern Europe in wanting to join NATO. – they have no territorial disputes with the two countries.
“We will observe very carefully what will be the consequences of Finland and Sweden joining NATO, with regard to our security, which must be guaranteed absolutely unconditionally”, he stressed.
Source: Jovem Pan