Finland and Sweden only needed a moment to think about it last year after the Russian army invaded Ukraine. In one fell swoop, that act of aggression ended the geopolitical neutrality on which both Nordic countries had relied for generations.
This officially came to an end as far as Finland is concerned on Tuesday, when the country joined the NATO alliance as the 31st member. It says a lot about Finland (and Russia) that NATO membership did not play a major role in the election campaign in recent weeks. The prime minister who guided Finland into NATO lost, but not because of this, and a new government will not seek rapprochement with Russia, which used to be so influential in Finland.
Sweden is currently in the waiting room, mainly due to the efforts of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. While a chilling war rages in the heart of Europe, both leaders blatantly abuse NATO expansion for internal use and other political interests.
With the accession of Finland, the North Atlantic defense bloc gains a special partner. The Finns make the treaty organization undeniably stronger from a military point of view.
Read also: How the many attacks by Russia have shaped Finland’s military identity: ‘Our history is so different from any other European country’
Finland became wise through trial and error, not just because Soviet troops invaded the country at the end of 1939. Finnish history is full of Russian invasions. The last, the ‘Winter War’, led to heavy losses on the Russian side, but when hostilities ceased Finland had lost almost 10 percent of its territory.
The aggression from Moscow also prompted the Finns to build up an extremely modern and flexible army, specialized in warfare under extreme arctic conditions. Despite the limited population of 5.5 million inhabitants, the Finnish army – thanks to its extensive conscription – has 280,000 well-trained soldiers and 900,000 reservists at its disposal during wartime.
On the other hand, Finland’s accession to NATO is also likely to lead to tensions that were not there until now. The border with Russia stretches for 1,340 kilometers, de facto doubling the border area between NATO and the country against which the allies want to protect themselves.
But despite the threatening language that President Putin and his accomplices have already uttered, this NATO expansion is a well-considered and proportionate response to Moscow’s bloody war policy. As Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday, NATO is getting stronger, and Finland is getting safer.
NATO enlargement mainly underlines the colossal miscalculation that Putin made in February last year when his troops invaded Ukraine. Kyiv’s pursuit of NATO membership was one of Putin’s pretexts for his invasion. Sweden and Finland were by no means deterred from seeking security guarantees more than seventy years after NATO was founded. On the contrary, Russian aggression in Ukraine is their main reason.
It is to be hoped, not only for Sweden but also for the security and stability of northern Europe, that Turkey and Hungary end their political hostage-taking of NATO and their newest ally quickly. Sweden’s accession process may move forward once Turkey’s parliamentary and presidential elections are over next month. Because one way or another it seems only a matter of time before NATO can welcome its 32nd member.