NATO's addition of Finland and Sweden -- what U.S. President Joe Biden calls 'our allies of the high north' -- would bring military and territorial advantages to the Western defence alliance. That's especially so as the rapid melting of the Arctic from climate change awakens strategic rivalries at the top of the world.
In this image provided by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a U.S. marine waves his troops onward after using Dutch landing craft to land near Sandstrand, Norway, March 21, 2022, during the Exercise Cold Response 22.
As the exercise made clear, NATO's addition of Finland and Sweden -- what President Joe Biden calls "our allies of the high north" -- would bring military and territorial advantages to the Western defence alliance. That's especially so as the rapid melting of the Arctic from climate change awakens strategic rivalries at the top of the world.
Finland -- until 1917 a grand duchy in that empire -- and Sweden abandoned longtime national policies of military nonalignment. They applied to come under NATO's nuclear and conventional umbrella and join what is now 30 other member states in a powerful mutual defense pact, stipulating that an attack on one member is an attack on all.
Russia in recent years has been "rearming up in the north, with advanced nuclear weapons, hypersonic missiles and multiple bases," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said this month. "Russia's threats, and Russia's military build-up, mean that NATO is strengthening its presence in the north.'Both countries downsized their militaries, cut defence funding and closed bases after the collapse of the Soviet Union lulled Cold War-era fears.
Finland's constitution makes rallying to the national defence an obligation of every citizen. Finland says it can muster a 280,000-strong fighting force, built on near-universal male conscription and a large, well-trained reserve, equipped with modern artillery, warplanes and tanks, much of it U.S. Selden predicts a greater NATO presence in the Baltics as a result, perhaps with a new NATO regional command, along with U.S. military rotations, although likely not any permanent base.
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