WASHINGTON – President Biden promised on Thursday to speed up Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership, seeking to redraw the map of Europe in favor of the West less than three months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine.
At a White House Rose Garden ceremony with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Anderson, Mr Biden said he would immediately present to the Senate the language of the treaty needed to make the two countries the newest members of the alliance. . Formal accession to the alliance will require the approval of the other 29 member states.
While there is no doubt that the Senate and most other NATO members will overwhelmingly approve the accession treaty, Turkey – which under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had sometimes close and sometimes controversial relations with Moscow – has expressed objections that could slow down the process and require negotiations to address their concerns.
“These two countries, especially Sweden, are a hotbed of terrorism,” Erdogan said on Thursday, apparently referring to what the Turkish leader claims is their tacit support for Kurdish separatists.
Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken met with his Turkish counterpart in New York on Wednesday, and Finnish officials said they were also in talks with Turkey. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Jake Sullivan, Mr Biden’s national security adviser, expressed confidence that “Turkey’s concerns could be addressed” and that Finland and Sweden would eventually be able to join the alliance.
But Mr Erdogan is known to be unpredictable, and he could easily use his leverage as a potential spoiler to push for his own demands, including lifting his country’s sanctions for buying Russian anti-aircraft systems.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday that he expected to address Turkey’s concerns.
“I am confident that we will make a quick decision to welcome both Sweden and Finland to join the NATO family,” he said, adding: “We are addressing the concerns expressed by Turkey.”
Leaving aside Mr. Erdogan’s demands, the White House ceremony was a landmark moment in the history of the Western Alliance – a rare event in history when a single event, the Russian invasion, changed NATO’s mood and possibly its borders almost overnight.
Under an agreement with the Soviet Union, Finland remains outside the alliance that was created to take over Russia after World War II. It remained independent in the post-Soviet era even after joining the European Union and became closer to the West. So far, Sweden has maintained neutrality for more than 200 years.
But that position was quickly abandoned following Putin’s decision in February to invade a non-NATO Ukraine. Both Finland and Sweden have suddenly realized that the threat from Russia has changed and that their status as a bystander in the conflict of great powers is now a huge risk.
The speed of the turnaround is so great that there has been virtually no debate since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, when even some of Washington’s most experienced Cold War diplomats warned that the more Russia felt surrounded. , the higher the chances of it eventually erupting, especially if efforts to integrate the country with the West fail.
On Wednesday, Mr Sullivan said Mr Biden had asked his national security officials if they supported the addition of Finland and Sweden to the alliance and that they had “strongly supported” the move unanimously.
The Rose Garden ceremony deliberately contained an echo of a state visit, supplemented by a military band. Mr Biden described the move to bring Finland and Sweden into the alliance as almost a formality, noting that both countries had contributed greatly to the conflicts in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq – NATO’s main commitments over the past 20 years – and that they were strong democracies that “meet every requirement of NATO and then some”.
Mr Biden said the two sides would increase the alliance’s firepower.
Finland has a sophisticated army that conducts sophisticated operations to track Russian activity in the seas of northern Europe and spends a lot on modern equipment. Sweden is a more difficult case: it is dismantling some of its military power and, Ms Anderson acknowledged, will have to reorient its budget to spend 2 per cent of its gross domestic product on defense, a target for NATO members.
But for the United States, the main benefit of the Nordic accession to the alliance is the message sent to Mr Putin. In December, the Russian president called on the United States and NATO to sign an agreement that would withdraw troops from former Soviet states and limit training and weapons.
Instead, NATO’s border with Russia will now extend another 810 miles, and the alliance’s expanded capabilities will complicate Russia’s defense.
Mr Putin’s expected reaction has been the subject of speculation and planning sessions. The Russian leader and his aides have so far reacted calmly, calling the move a mistake and saying they would react if the weapons were placed near Russia’s borders.
But Finland and Sweden now see Putin as a much greater threat to their security than Soviet leaders were during the Cold War. For Mr Biden, the change in sentiment in both countries is an opportunity to fundamentally strengthen the transatlantic alliance and weaken Russia while Putin remains in power.
Mr Biden hinted at this goal – which he did not fully articulate – in comments to the White House on Thursday. “Doubts have begun to emerge in recent years,” he said. “Was NATO still relevant?”
He said the Russian invasion had proved that it remained “the indispensable union for the world we face today” and that the decisions taken by Sweden and Finland to choose a country were “proof of this commitment”.
“Finland and Sweden are making NATO stronger,” he said, “not only because of their capabilities, but because they are strong, strong democracies.”
Prior to Mr Niinisto’s and Ms Anderson’s visit, Mr Biden also issued a statement offering an informal guarantee of security for the two nations as they awaited formal membership in the alliance. This was to prevent any effort by Russia to intimidate the countries – perhaps with cyber attacks, perhaps air or naval exercises – while they await membership and the official defenses that come with it.
But Mr. Niinisto hinted at the importance of speed. “Now that we have taken this decisive step, it is time for NATO allies to get involved,” he said. “We look forward to strong support from all allies and a speedy ratification of our membership once it is agreed.
He referred directly to Turkey, saying “we will commit to Turkey’s security, just as Turkey will commit to our security” and added: “We take terrorism seriously.” This seemed to be an allusion to Turkey’s concern for Kurdish extremists.
Ms Anderson, addressing Mr Biden and noting with laughter that “the Swedes first set foot in your home state of Delaware in 1638”, said that the invasion of Ukraine “reminds us of the darkest days of European history “. It was a “turning point for Sweden,” she said, forcing Swedes to rethink their security.
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