Finland and Sweden will jointly express their desire to join NATO in May, according to the news Monday in Finland’s Iltalehti and Sweden’s Expressen newspapers, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Despite closer co-operation with the military alliance since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, Scandinavian countries have chosen to stay away, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has left Sweden and Finland with their longstanding military neutrality still the best course of action. forced him to think it wasn’t. National Security.
According to Iltalehti, the leaders of Finland and Sweden plan to meet during the week of May 16 and then publicly announce their plans to apply to join the military alliance.
Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto declined to comment, but reiterated her long-held view that she would prefer Finland and Sweden to hold similar elections.
Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, citing sources close to Swedish government offices, separately reported that the United States and the United Kingdom promised Sweden more military presence, deeper military exercises and “strong political” support from NATO countries in a possible candidacy process. NATO.
The Swedish Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the Expressen and Aftonbladet reports.
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said during a visit to her Swedish counterpart Magdalena Andersson two weeks ago that she expects Finland to make its decision to apply for NATO membership within weeks.
Stockholm is conducting a security policy review, including possible NATO membership, and results are expected in mid-May.
source: Noticias
