NATO invites Finland, Sweden to join, says Russia is a 'direct threat'
NATO invited Sweden and Finland on Wednesday to join the military alliance in one of the biggest shifts in European security in decades after Russia's invasion of Ukraine pushed Helsinki and Stockholm to drop their traditional of neutrality.
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"Today, we have decided to invite Finland and Sweden to become members of NATO," NATO leaders said in their declaration, after Turkey lifted a veto on Finland and Sweden joining.
Ratification in allied parliaments is likely to take up to a year, but once it is done, Finland and Sweden will be covered by NATO's Article 5 collective defence clause, putting them under the United States' protective nuclear umbrella.
"We will make sure we are able to protect all allies, including Finland and Sweden," Stoltenberg said.
In the meantime, the allies are set to increase their troop presence in the Nordic region, holding more military exercises and naval patrols in the Baltic Sea to reassure Sweden and Finland.
After four hours of talks in Madrid on Tuesday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan agreed with his Finnish and Swedish counterparts a series of security measures to allow the two Nordic countries to overcome the Turkish veto that Ankara imposed in May due to its concerns about terrorism.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was founded in 1949 to defend against the Soviet threat. Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine gave the organisation a new impetus after failures in Afghanistan and internal discord during the era of former U.S. President Donald Trump.
"We are sending a strong message to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin: 'you will not win'," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a speech.
Allies also agreed on NATO's first new strategic concept - its master planning document - in a decade. Russia, previously classed as a strategic partner of NATO,isnow identified as NATO's main threat.
