Sweden and Finland reiterate their right to join NATO

Finland and Sweden reaffirmed on Saturday their right to enter the NATO if they wish, despite new warnings from Russia in the midst of its invasion of Ukraine.

On Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry warned that a Finnish or Swedish accession to NATO – which the two Nordic countries say is not on the agenda – “would have serious military and political repercussions”.

A statement to this effect by ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was widely circulated on social media and was interpreted as a threat of military attack in the event of accession.

“We’ve heard that in the past,” Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Yle public television on Saturday.

The same words had been used by Russia a few weeks ago, when it had demanded guarantees that NATO would not expand further east. But also on many occasions in recent years, she stressed.

Despite the Russian invasion of Ukraine, both Helsinki and Stockholm have since Thursday ruled out the idea of ​​an express request to join the Western military alliance.

But from the beginning of the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis, they asked for guarantees that the door of the alliance remained open.

Both countries are officially non-aligned, although they have been NATO partners since the mid-1990s.

“I want to be very clear. It is Sweden that alone and independently chooses its security line,” Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said at a press conference on Friday.

Even before the invasion, the Ukrainian crisis had reopened the NATO debate in Sweden and Finland, where the left is traditionally very much against it and the right more for it.

Swedish public support for NATO membership has never been higher, according to a poll published on Friday.

In the study by the Novus institute for television SVT, 41% of those surveyed are in favor of joining, 35% against and 24% are undecided.