Both countries are formally militarily non-aligned, but public support for NATO membership has nearly doubled since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to about 50% in Sweden and 60% in Finland, according to several polls. Sweden’s center-left Social Democrats, led by Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, said their “security review” was not just about joining the 30-nation alliance, adding that the party could decide to apply even without the support of . Stressing at the outbreak of the war that the misalignment had “served Sweden’s interests well”, Anderson said she was “ready to discuss” politics in the light of Moscow’s aggression and in late March said she “did not rule out” NATO membership. “When Russia invaded Ukraine, Sweden’s security position changed radically,” the party said in a statement on Monday. Social Democrat general secretary Tobias Baudin said the security review would be completed “before the summer.” The question is expected to be a key issue in the September 11 parliamentary elections, with the center-right opposition parties already saying they would support a NATO bid and the far-right Swedish Democrats also open to the idea. Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia and, like Sweden, is a NATO ally after abandoning its position of strict neutrality at the end of the Cold War, is expected to present its decision on the alliance before from mid-summer. . Alexander Stubb, Finland’s former prime minister, told AFP that it was a “preliminary conclusion” that Helsinki would apply to join NATO, possibly in time for a NATO summit in Madrid in June. A government-sponsored national security review is set to be submitted to parliament next week to help Finnish lawmakers decide on the issue before voting, with a recent poll showing that only six of the country’s 200 lawmakers opposed it. “We will have very careful discussions, but without taking more time than necessary,” the country’s prime minister, Sanaa Marin, said last week. “I think we will end the debate before mid-summer,” he said. Both countries have received public assurances from NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg that their requests would be welcomed, as well as expressions of support from many members, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Turkey. . But the move will almost certainly be seen as a challenge by the Kremlin, whose spokesman Dmitry Peshkov said on Monday that the alliance was “a tool of confrontation” and that its possible accession “would not bring stability to the European continent”. ». .
