Biden pushes Finland and Sweden to join NATO as future of European security questioned

LONDON — During a meeting with Finnish and Swedish leaders at the White House on Thursday, President Biden reflected on the importance of the two European nations joining NATO, stating that the Nordic countries make the alliance “stronger.”

Speaking alongside Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, Biden announced his strong support for both nations to join “the strongest and most powerful defense alliance in the history of the world.”

Finland and Sweden “have a strong moral sense of what is right,” Biden said. “They meet every NATO requirement and then some.” He went on to say that his administration would work with Congress to approve their membership “quickly.”

Andersson concluded the news conference by stating that “peace and stability in our part of the world is a common security interest. We stand here today more united than ever.”

A shift in European security

Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February kick-started monumental changes in Europe that would result in the redrawing of the continent’s security map.

One of those changes was cemented on Wednesday when Finland and Sweden formally applied for NATO membership — and in doing so, giving up decades of neutrality. If they are accepted, Russia will face new NATO borders, which would more than double. Ironically, Russian President Vladimir Putin said one of his reasons for invading Ukraine was to push back on NATO’s expansion in the east.

On Sunday, Switzerland’s head of security policy, Paelvi Pulli, announced that the country would be looking into conducting joint military drills with NATO countries. “Ultimately, there could be changes in the way neutrality is interpreted,” she said.

Even First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of Scotland reaffirmed during a trip to Washington, D.C., on Monday that “membership of the European Union and membership of NATO will be cornerstones of an independent Scotland’s security policy.”

Turkey’s objection

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would oppose both Finland’s and Sweden’s applications for NATO membership, alleging that they are “home to many terrorist organizations,” referring mostly to Sweden’s perceived support of the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

Erdogan claimed Sweden is “a focus of terror, home to terror” and accused both Nordic nations of supplying money and weapons to terrorist organizations, saying they could not be a part of the military alliance for these reasons, the Associated Press reported.

“We have told our relevant friends we would say ‘no’ to Finland and Sweden’s entry into NATO, and we will continue on our path like this,” Erdogan said in a video on Thursday. The military alliance makes decisions by consensus, meaning that all 30 members have to agree and that any nation can veto a bid for membership.

Finnish leader Niinistö made a direct appeal to Turkey during his speech at the White House on Thursday. "We take terrorism seriously, we condemn terrorism in all its forms and we are actively engaged in combating it,” he said. “We are open to discussing all the concerns Turkey may have concerning our membership in an open and constructive manner.”

But NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that he was confident NATO would “come to a quick decision to welcome both Sweden and Finland to join the NATO family.”

“We are addressing the concerns that Turkey has expressed because when an important ally [like] Turkey raises security concerns, raises issues, then, of course, the only way to deal with that is to sit down and find common ground,” he said.

The future

NATO was created during the Cold War in response to Soviet aggression. “The threat from Russia has generated the greatest tensions with the alliance in the post-Cold War era,” the Council on Foreign Relations think tank wrote. For years, NATO was a “completely comatose organization,” Aaron Stein, the director of research at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told Yahoo News.

It was because of Putin’s actions in Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014, and of former President Donald Trump, who wanted the U.S. to withdraw from NATO, that had people thinking about European security again, Stein said. “This has been supercharged with the recent invasion of Ukraine,” he added.

But how does the future of Europe’s security look? Howard Stoffer, professor of international affairs at the University of New Haven in Connecticut, told Yahoo News that it will “tremendously change.” As an organization, NATO will be “much more revitalized … than ever before” and this will, in turn, strengthen European unity, he said. After the U.K. voted to leave the European Union in 2016, there were questions about whether other state members would also leave. However, Stoffer said that NATO will help “Europe really look forward.”

Another difference, and perhaps a more obvious one, according to Stein, is that there will be a far more militarized border from the Baltic region, Poland and, of course, Finland. “It turns the Baltic Sea into NATO’s complete domain,” he told Yahoo News. He added that it also tilts the balance of power in the Arctic toward NATO — a region the Kremlin once had near-total dominance over.

As formerly neutral Finland submitted its membership application to NATO, it not only meant that 75 years of nonalignment were abandoned, but also that the Nordic country would play a huge role in the face of the 30-member alliance, as Finland shares an 830-mile border with Russia. “The Finns will not be free riders [in NATO], unlike other countries,” Stein said. “They will have to take security very seriously.”