Following talks in Madrid, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday agreed with his Finnish and Swedish counterparts a series of security measures that would allow the two Nordic countries to move forward in their bid to join the US-led alliance. “We will decide at the summit to invite Sweden and Finland to join,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg of the two countries, which toppled decades of neutrality to apply for membership in mid-May. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register The deal, hailed as a victory for Erdogan in the Turkish media, removed a major obstacle to the integration of the Nordic nations. Their offer must now be approved by the parliaments of the Member States, a process that may take some time. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 gave a new impetus to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which was founded in 1949 to defend itself against the Soviet threat, following failures in Afghanistan and internal strife under former US President Donald Trump. Trump. “We are sending a strong message to (Russian President Vladimir Putin): ‘You will not win,’” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a statement. As a sign of Western momentum, the NATO summit, which began Tuesday afternoon with a dinner at the Royal Palace of Spain, will welcome the leaders of non-NATO members Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea. NATO seeks to forge closer ties with those countries to confront China and Russia, which issued a joint statement in early February rejecting NATO expansion into Europe and challenging the international order in the West. “The Russian invasion of Ukraine has created a more united world, in terms of democratic nations, and a determination that is strong and clear. And I think it will also be decisive,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a think tank. on the sidelines of the summit. The Allies will agree on NATO’s first new strategic idea – its main planning document – in a decade. Russia will be recognized as the “main threat” of NATO in the strategic idea, said the Spaniard Sanchez. Russia used to be considered a strategic partner of NATO. NATO Heads of State and Government pose for a photo during a NATO Summit in Madrid, Spain, June 29, 2022. REUTERS / Susana Vera read more Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is “an immediate threat to our Western way of life,” added Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croix, citing the wider impact of the war, such as rising energy and food prices. The planning document will also cite China as a challenge for the first time, laying the groundwork for the 30 allies to plan to handle the transformation of Beijing from a benevolent trading partner to a fast-growing Arctic competitor in cyberspace.
“MORE NATO”
Unlike Russia, whose war in Ukraine has raised serious concerns in the Baltic about an attack on NATO territory, China is not an adversary, NATO leaders have said. However, Stoltenberg has repeatedly called on Beijing to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow says is a “special operation.” At the summit, NATO is set to agree on a long-term aid package for Ukraine, in addition to the billions of dollars already committed to arms and financial support. German Chancellor Olaf Soltz has said he will continue to supply arms to Kyiv, which is seeking help to fight Russian artillery, particularly in eastern Ukraine, where Russia is slowly moving into a fearsome war of attrition. “The message is: We will continue to do so – and do it intensively – for as long as it takes for Ukraine to defend itself,” Solz said. The Western alliance will also agree that major allies such as the United States, Germany, Britain and Canada will pre-deploy troops, weapons and equipment to the Baltic and intensify training exercises. NATO also aims to have up to 300,000 troops ready for deployment in the event of a conflict, part of an expanded NATO response force. read more Russia is achieving the opposite of what Putin sought when he started his war in Ukraine, in part to counter NATO expansion, Western leaders say. Both Finland, which has a 1,300-kilometer (810-mile) border with Russia, and Sweden, the home of Nobel Peace Prize laureate, are now bringing well-trained troops to NATO to give the alliance the upper hand. of the Baltic Sea. “One of President Putin’s most important messages … was that he was against any further enlargement of NATO,” Stoltenberg said Tuesday night. “He wanted less NATO. Now President Putin is getting more NATO on his borders.” Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Additional references by Aislinn Laing, Belen Carreno, Humeyra Pamuk, Andrea Shalal, written by Robin Emmott. Edited by Frank Jack Daniel Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
