Finland, Sweden submit NATO Membership Application

In News

• Finland and Sweden have recently applied for membership in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
  • If admitted, Sweden and Finland will become 31st and 32nd members of NATO. 

Background

• Finland:
  • Post-World War-II, Finland sought to achieve neutrality through a defence alliance with the Soviet Union called the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance 
  • Finland also stayed out of the Marshall Plan as the treaty protected it from being attacked or incorporated into the USSR like the Baltic and eastern European states. 
    • It allowed the country to pursue the path of democracy and capitalism while staying out of the conflict between the great powers.
    • Marshall Plan : It was the US aid programme for Europe’s post-World War II recovery. 
    • After the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Finnish neutrality was manifest in its decision to stay out of NATO, even as it entered the European Union in 1995. 
  • This approach of Finland is also famously known as the Finland model, or “Finlandisation”.
• Sweden:
  • Swedish neutrality traces back to the early 19th century, and largely held through WWII.
  • The country shed its neutrality in the 1990s as it became involved with NATO in its international missions in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Libya. 
  • It joined the EU in 1995 at the same time as Finland.
  • In 2010, Sweden became part of the European Common Security and Defence Policy.

Significance

• Security Assurance: Being a member of NATO will give the nations a security guarantee under the alliance’s “Article 5” on collective defence.
  • The article essentially guarantees a military response and protection by NATO countries if any member of the organisation comes under attack.
• Bolster the Nordic Region: It would formalize their joint security and defense work” with neighbors Denmark, Norway, and Iceland.
• Boost NATO’s Capability: The admission of Finland and Sweden would give NATO a contiguous long frontier in western Russia. 
  • Finland and Russia share a 1,300-km border and doubling it from the present 1,200 km, parts of NATO in northern Norway, Latvia and Estonia, and Poland and Lithuania.
  • Sweden’s island of Gotland in the middle of the Baltic Sea would give NATO a strategic advantage. 
  • The Baltic Sea is Russia’s gateway to the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean which would be ringed entirely by members of the western security alliance Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark and Sweden.
• Departure for Neutrality: In seeking NATO membership, Sweden and Finland have abandoned their long history of neutrality.
  • During the Cold War, their foreign policy and security priority was to stay out of superpower rivalry and maintain cordial ties with both blocs.

Image Courtesy: IE

Criticism

• Some may see an expanding NATO and the growing role of the US in European security as a repetition of history where war was an ever-present threat. 
  • Even during the Cold War the US and the Soviet Union met regularly to reduce the risk of war, especially nuclear.
• Turkish PM is criticising this move saying neither of these countries (Finland and Sweden) has a clear, open attitude towards the terrorist organization.
  • Turkey claims that two countries had provided safe haven to the leaders of the Kurdish group PKK, an armed movement fighting for a separate Kurdistan, comprising Kurdish areas in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria.

Russian Response 

• Russia claims to have no problems with Finland and Sweden joining NATO as these countries do not pose a direct threat to Russia. 
  • But Russia has issues with the expansion of military infrastructure into their territory which they claim “will certainly provoke their response.”
  • Both Sweden and Finland have already stated that they are opposed to NATO deploying nuclear weapons or setting up military bases on its territory if admitted to the alliance.
• Ukraine’s separation from the Soviet Union and ties with NATO is at the root of the current tensions. 
  • Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, NATO moved eastward to include Baltic republics such as Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, which were originally part of the Soviet Union. As a result, NATO, which was formed to fight the Soviet Union, drew closer to Moscow, bordering it directly. 
• If Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was meant to deter NATO’s eastward expansion, the war has had the opposite effect. 

Source: IE, IndiaTimes