NATO: Parliaments of member countries must approve Finland and Sweden membership

The 30 countries of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) signed a protocol of accession of Finland and Sweden, this Tuesday (5), to allow the two countries to join the military alliance once the allied parliaments ratify the agreement. decision.

When confirmed, it will be NATO’s most significant expansion in the last 30 years. “This is really a historic moment,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, alongside the foreign ministers of the two countries.

For the International Analyst CNN Lourival Sant’Anna, the accession of the Nordic nations to the alliance should generate a reaction from Russia and could impact the escalation of the Russian conflict with Ukraine.

“Sweden is a major arms manufacturer and dominates the entrance to the Baltic Sea, which borders the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, where there is a large Russian fleet for the region. Finland, on the other hand, has about 1,300 kilometers of border with Russia”, he evaluates.

“Putin has two options; He can use that to escalate the conflict (with Ukraine), which would be suicidal. Or he ignores this and propagates the idea of ​​the threat from the West and the defense of Russia.”

The NATO accession process should take about a year, and in this period, the alliance should continue to assist Ukraine, mainly with the shipment of heavy weapons. For Lourival, the Ukrainian military is waiting for the arrival of new weapons to retake territories now dominated by the Russians.

“Putin will take the whole of the Donbass, not least because Ukraine has taken the decision to retreat, to avoid ‘new Mariupols’. In a new phase, Ukraine will try to retake the region. Russian wear and tear is great and time is on Ukraine’s favor. The new weapons must be on the ground in August, when Russia is not in a position to replace its personnel with the same quality.”