Finland and Sweden Join NATO
Finland joined NATO on 4 April 2023 and Sweden on 7 March 2024, ending Finnish non-alignment dating from 1948 and Swedish neutrality dating from 1814. Both had been militarily non-aligned through the Cold War for different reasons. Finland's was imposed by geography and by the 1948 treaty with the Soviet Union, and the accommodation it required gave the word Finlandisation to the language. Sweden's was a matter of long national identity, sustained through two world wars. Both had cooperated closely with NATO for decades — Partnership for Peace membership, interoperable forces, deployments in Afghanistan — without seeking Article 5 protection. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 ended the argument in weeks. Finnish support for membership went from around a quarter to over three-quarters in a month, and both governments applied jointly in May 2022. Turkey and Hungary delayed ratification. Ankara's objections concerned Kurdish groups it regards as terrorist, arms export restrictions imposed on it, and Quran-burning protests in Stockholm, and were settled by a memorandum, changes to Swedish anti-terror law and, in practice, American fighter sales. Finland's accession more than doubled NATO's land border with Russia, adding some 1,340 kilometres, and brought an army with a reserve of 870,000 and a society organised around total defence. Sweden brought Gotland, a submarine fleet built for the Baltic, and Saab. The Baltic Sea is now bordered almost entirely by NATO members, which is the opposite of what the invasion was intended to achieve. Both countries have since increased defence spending well past the alliance target. Hungary ratified Sweden's accession last, in February 2024, after two years of delay.
- Year: 2023 CE
- Category: Diplomatic
