Nato invites Finland, Sweden to join, says Russia is a ‘direct threat’

MADRID: 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 neutrality.

Nato's 30 allies took the decision at their summit in Madrid and also agreed to formally treat Russia as the "most significant and direct threat to the allies' security", according to a summit statement.

"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 on 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 US 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, is now identified as Nato's main threat.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is "a direct threat to our Western way of life", Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo added, citing the wider impact of the war, such as rising energy and food prices.

The planning document also cited China as a challenge for the first time, setting the stage for the 30 allies to plan to handle Beijing's transformation from a benign trading partner to a fast-growing competitor from the Arctic to cyberspace.

Unlike Russia, whose war in Ukraine has raised serious concerns in the Baltics of an attack on Nato territory, China is not an adversary, Nato leaders said. But Stoltenberg has repeatedly called on Beijing to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow says is a "special operation". The war in Ukraine has shaken the 30-nation alliance and forced it into the biggest overhaul of its defences since the end of the Cold War.

The summit agreed a new guiding blueprint for Nato that said Russia "is the most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area".