The US president said that including Finland and Sweden will “make NATO stronger”
On Thursday, President Joe Biden gave his address to the nation. “strong support”Finland and Sweden submitted NATO membership requests. He insisted that the alliance’s continued expansion “is not a threat to any nation,”Russia disagrees with this point.
Biden, speaking alongside Sauli Niinisto, the Finnish president and Magdalena Andersson the Swedish prime minister at the White House announced that he will submit to Congress a report urging Congress to approve the inclusion of the Nordic countries in NATO. On Wednesday, Sweden and Finland requested formal admission into the US-led military bloc.
“Sweden and Finland are already among our closest partners on a range of issues,” Biden declared. “Today, I’m proud to inform them that they have the complete support of the United States of America.”
Praising both countries’ democratic governments and modern militaries, Biden said that their inclusion would “make NATO stronger.”
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Biden also added “new members joining NATO is not a threat to any nation,”And that it is an alliance “purpose is to defend against aggression.”
“We reject the bloody creed that might makes right,”He concluded by stating that “NATO’s door remains open”For other potential members.
Russia is a completely different perspective. The Kremlin views NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe – which Western leaders initially promised Moscow would never happen – as a threat to its national security. Furthermore, Ukraine’s insistence on joining the alliance, and the assistance Kiev received from NATO in recent years, has been cited by Russia as a key factor behind its decision to attack Ukraine in February.
For decades, top Western policy officers and analysts have warned that NATO expansion could lead to war in Europe. Among these was George Kennan, a US diplomat and architect of Washington’s hardline anti-communist policies of the Cold War. He wrote 1997 about NATO expansion. “would be the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-cold-war era.”
Regarding Sweden and Finland’s entry into the alliance, Moscow called the move a “serious mistake with long-lasting ramifications.” Still, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated this week that Russia views the two countries’ NATO aspirations as less concerning than those of Ukraine, where potential territorial disputes “would have carried huge risks for the entire continent.”
