Former NATO Secretary General Calls For Security Guarantees To Finland and Sweden

Former NATO Secretary General Anders Rasmussen said on May 8, that there was a window of opportunity for Finland and Sweden to join NATO now, because Putin was preoccupied elsewhere, thereby having to put aside the two countries’ membership application. Their accession would significantly increase NATO’s military power and double the current NATO-Russia border.

In accordance with established practice, an application to accede to NATO must be unanimously ratified by all NATO members. It would take several months even if an urgent procedure was initiated. In this regard, Rasmussen said that given that the two countries might be exposed to Russian threats during the ratification process, NATO should provide security guarantees for Finland and Sweden as if they were already members of NATO.

According to Ivan Krastev, a political analyst, Finnish and Swedish decisions to change their years of neutral stance and choose to join NATO was a message that there were no neutral countries on the border of Russia. It was unclear how Russia would react to the two countries’ NATO membership applications.

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Translator: MOS English Team – Mindblade Q Design&editor: Hbamboo