Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has provoked a major shift
in the way Europe sees its security and defense.
Finland and Sweden — two Nordic nations that have spent decades avoiding any military alliances
have decided they are no longer safe on their own; and have requested to join NATO.
We hope that the parliament will confirm the decision to apply for NATO membership during the coming days
This is best for Sweden and the Swedish security. It is not something against Russia.
But how does a country join NATO, and what does this mean for the world?
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is made up of 30 countries.
What brings them together is a defense pact called Article 5, which states that an attack
against one member country is an attack on them all.
This means an invasion of even the smallest or weakest of these nations would bring a
response from military powers including the U.S., U.K. and France.
It has been an effective deterrent – Article 5 has only been invoked once after the 9/11 attacks.
So why do Finland and Sweden want to join now, more than 70 years after NATO was founded?
Finland shares an 830-mile land border with Russia, while Sweden has a maritime border
with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad in the Baltic Sea.
For officials in both countries, Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine made it clear
that Moscow didn’t have reservations about moving into its neighbors’ territory.
Three issues have changed when Russia attacked Ukraine.
First, that things are now more unpredictable than earlier, Russia was ready to change the
government in the country of 40 million people by military force.
Secondly, Russia has increased this kind of loose speech about nuclear weapons, chemical
weapons, and so forth.
And thirdly, they are ready to put more than 100,000 soldiers
without mobilization in one spot on the border areas.
I think that for this kind of risks, we also have to be ready.
It took Stockholm and Helsinki a couple of months to organize their applications to join
NATO, but how long will it take before they become full members?
Well, it depends.
The accession process has several steps: First, countries looking to join send a letter
to the NATO Secretary General Then an official invitation to start accession
talks is sent to the applicant country After that, negotiations between the country
and NATO begin Once these are concluded, NATO’s council
gives the green light for all NATO members to sign the accession protocol
And this agreement is then ratified by all the NATO countries,
which in some cases, means getting parliamentary approval.
NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg hopes Finland and Sweden’s applications
will progress through these steps quickly.
But NATO members Croatia and Turkey have raised concerns about letting them into the alliance,
which could delay, or even halt, the process.
But it won’t just be Finland and Sweden benefitting if they are allowed in.
The countries also have a lot to offer the defense alliance.
Sweden has about 50,000 military employees and volunteers.
Finland has 900,000 reservists, and boasts a wartime strength of 280,000 soldiers.
Sweden reduced the size of its military in the 1990s but began to reverse that policy
after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.
In addition, their troops do joint military exercises with NATO and are experts at operating
in the kind of climate and terrain found on Russia’s borders with Europe.
Finland has other technical expertise that could be useful to NATO allies too.
60 feet underground, we are going to see how Finland has been preparing for the worst.
In the capital Helsinki, there’s a vast network of civil shelters, more than 5,000 in total.
They’re here to protect citizens against attack.
We are trying to assess any kind of weapon effects.
So, blast proofing and gas proofing, and radiation and toxic chemicals.
So, it will go as far as protecting citizens against a potential even nuclear?
Even nuclear.
Normally, these underground spaces are used for parking, storage, sporting and cultural
activities — even children’s play areas.
But within 72 hours, this bunker can be converted into a shelter for 6,000 people.
Finland has a long history of preparedness.
Bunkers like this have been around for decades, but their relevance has become even more obvious
in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
We have neighbors.
And naturally the neighbors might cause us some immediate danger, but right now, there
is no elevated threat against Finland at any point.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has historically opposed NATO enlargement, though in May, he
signalled he would tolerate Finland and Sweden joining the alliance – as long as no NATO
military bases, or equipment sprung up in the countries.
President Putin achieved just the opposite to what he wanted to achieve with this operation.
He basically tried to show that the world there is no Ukraine.
And the result is that now everybody in the world knows that Ukraine exists.
And secondly, he wanted to show that the West, NATO is dead, and he basically resurrected both the West and NATO.
The Swedish and the Finnish decisions was a message that there is no neutral countries
on the border of Russia.
And this is a new reality, even during the Cold War, it was not like this.