On 12 May, Finnish President Sholi Niinistö and Prime Minister Sanna Marin issued a joint statement clarifying Finland's application to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg said finns would be "warmly welcomed" and promised that Finland's accession to NATO would be "smooth and swift". The United States, Germany, France and the United Kingdom have also expressed their full support for Finland's accession to NATO, and the United Kingdom has even taken the initiative to sign security agreements with Finland and Sweden, claiming that if Sweden and Finland are attacked, the United Kingdom will provide assistance to the two militaries.
According to the Financial Times reported on May 13, the foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said in interviews that they would seek NATO to approve Finland and Sweden's applications as soon as possible. Latvian Foreign Minister Linkvičić also said in an interview that "the Baltic Sea is becoming the NATO Sea".
However, Turkey, which is also a NATO country, has clearly expressed its opposition to Finland and Sweden joining NATO. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised speech on the 13th that Turkey does not support Sweden and Finland joining NATO. Turkey's opposition was based on the support of the PKK, which it has accused of being a "terrorist organization."
President Of Turkey Erdogan
According to nato's rules of the game, in order to admit new members to join, it must be agreed by all member states, and each country has the right to veto. Previously, Croatian President Milanovic had said that if Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO, he would use the veto. Unless the balkan problems are solved. Now, coupled with Turkey's statement, there are still certain variables about whether Sweden and Finland can join NATO as they wish.
Finland and Sweden have long pursued a policy of military non-alignment, and now the two Nordic countries have decided to abandon their neutral position throughout the Cold War, which will be one of the biggest shifts in The field of European security in recent decades.
Prime Minister Magdalena Anderson of Sweden and Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland
How did Finland and Sweden move from neutrality to NATO?
Since its founding, the Soviet Union has always had objections to the border with Finland, believing that it threatens the safety of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), the second largest city of the Soviet Union, only 32 kilometers away from the border, and because Finland and Germany were close at that time, the Soviet Union believed that Finland would probably become an accomplice to the German invasion of the country, so it continued to negotiate, threaten or try to subvert the Finnish government to solve its border problem, and several negotiations between the Soviet Union and Finland were fruitless in 1930, and the Soviet Union decided to invade Finland by force, and the Soviet-Finnish War broke out. In this war, the Soviet Union paid a huge amount of casualties to achieve the cession of Finland's territory, and Finland lost 10% of its territory. At this point, the hearts of the Finns have also planted the seeds of disgust with su and su.
After World War II, Finland and the Soviet Union signed the Soviet-Finnish Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, which required both sides not to join any security alliance aimed at opposing the other, and Finland has long maintained a neutral foreign policy.
Sweden, on the other hand, we know that when the First World War broke out, Sweden and Norway declared neutrality, and both sides could not be guilty. At that time, both the British and Russian sides, as well as the German and Austro-Hungarian sides, wanted Sweden to stand in its own camp and turn Sweden into a front line of attack on the other side. Fortunately, Sweden has a certain military self-defense capability, and whoever wants to fight Sweden will have to pay a price. During World War II, Sweden basically repeated its neutral position during World War I. After the end of World War II, the world immediately entered a period of bipolar hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union. Despite the capitalist system, the Swedish and American-led capitalist camps did not intersect much, and there was little interest in the "North Atlantic Treaty" led by the United States.
After the end of the Cold War, Sweden and Finland joined the European Union in 1995, and Finland and Sweden continued their military non-alignment policy and did not join NATO.
But in recent years, the diplomatic balance between the two neutral nations has been upset: in May 2016, the United States held a summit with the leaders of the five Nordic countries to explicitly express "concern about Russia's growing military presence in the Baltic Sea region"; in December 2021, Finland announced the purchase of dozens of American F-35 fighter jets, worth nearly $9.4 billion.
Over the past few years, it has become "commonplace" for NATO member forces to participate in military exercises in Sweden. After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Finland and Sweden deepened their ties with NATO. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has more than once "called out" the two countries, claiming that NATO welcomes Finland and Sweden to join and will ensure its prompt acceptance. Since the escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the voices of Support for "Accession to the Treaty" in Finland and Sweden have been rising. According to the latest polls, 76 percent of Finns favor "accession to the treaty"; more than half of Swedes support Sweden's accession to NATO, the first of its kind in Sweden, which has long been known as a neutral country. The great changes in national sentiment between the two countries have also indirectly promoted Finland and Sweden to join NATO.
NATO's unlimited expansion will threaten global security
Under the leadership of the United States, NATO, a relic of the Cold War, has expanded eastward five times since 1999, increasing the number of member states from 16 to 30, and the border has advanced more than 1,000 kilometers eastward, reaching the Russian border. Now, NATO is seeking to expand north! Recently, the United States has taken advantage of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict to further strengthen NATO's status and role, and strives to exert long-term pressure on Russia through NATO's eastward expansion and northward expansion.
Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has refused to withdraw from the stage of history, inducing or aggravating turmoil in some countries and regions, and NATO's bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, its attack on Libya, and its intervention in Afghanistan have all brought serious consequences. The outbreak of conflict between Russia and Ukraine this time is an important reason for NATO's eastward expansion.
The United States sees NATO as a tool to maintain its hegemony and use it to surround and beat up military organizations in hostile countries. Relying on trafficking in security anxiety to create security panic, strengthen the antagonism between friend and foe, and coerce regional partners to take sides has caused a serious impact on major country relations and The European security order. In recent years, the United States and its allies have even tried to cause trouble to the east, accelerate the promotion of "NATOization" in the Asia-Pacific region, and spread the tentacles of hegemony throughout eurasia.
Russia may take retaliatory measures of any nature
For Russia, NATO's further expansion will further compress its living space: Finland and Russia border line length of about 1300 kilometers, Finland, Sweden guard the Baltic Sea outlet, once the two countries "into the treaty", Russia's second largest city St. Petersburg will be directly exposed to NATO strike range, the country's only northwest sea outlet security is not only not guaranteed, even the Arctic route will also face NATO encirclement. Coupled with the fact that the United States has accelerated ukraine's "accession to the treaty" in recent years and blocked the main routes of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Russia's geopolitical tensions have undoubtedly intensified.
In the face of NATO's "humiliating" northward expansion, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Eskov said after the Finnish leader issued a joint statement on the 12th that Russia "definitely" will regard Finland's accession to NATO as a threat and will take reciprocal measures. On the same day, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a warning that the Russian side would be "forced to take retaliatory measures of a military technology and other natures." Reuters quoted a number of Russian officials as saying that the "retaliatory measures" including but not limited to "deploying nuclear-tipped missiles in the Baltic Sea."
In the face of NATO's step by step, Russia is already a "red-eyed polar bear". If Finland really joins NATO, Russia will basically fall into the encirclement of NATO, up to 1300 kilometers of border line will face NATO troops, Russia will certainly not be able to bear, which is bound to provoke a fierce confrontation between Russia and NATO, Russia does not rule out more ground troops, and even nuclear weapons deployed on the Russian-Finnish border, which is bound to lead to greater geopolitical conflicts, Europe or will never have a peaceful day.
Some analysts pointed out that joining NATO cannot really solve the security dilemma of Finland and Sweden. In the view of the two countries, "joining the treaty" is to strengthen their own defense forces, change their weak position, and resist the "threat" of Russia. But to really put your foot on the threshold of NATO is equivalent to putting yourself at the forefront of NATO's confrontation with Russia.
Today's world is experiencing great changes and great turbulence. The practice of indulging in safeguarding hegemony, forming gangs, engaging in "small circles" and even using ideological lines to provoke confrontation between major powers and split the international community will only lead mankind to an even greater catastrophe.
The author 丨 Qiu Suijia is a direct news reporter of Shenzhen Satellite TV
Editor 丨Yu Zhemin, editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Satellite TV News
Typography 丨Dong Yi