NATO's addition of Finland and Sweden — what Pres. Biden calls “our allies of the high north” — would bring military and territorial advantages to the Western defense alliance.
In this image provided by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a U.S. marine waves his troops onward after using Dutch landing craft to land near Sandstrand, Norway, March 21, 2022, during the Exercise Cold Response 22. The first surprise, for the Finnish conscripts and officers taking part in a NATO-hosted military exercise in the Arctic this spring: the sudden roar of a U.S. Marine helicopter assault force, touching down in a field right next to the Finns' well-hidden command post.
In contrast to the NATO expansion of former Soviet states that needed big boosts in the decades after the Cold War, the alliance would be bringing in two sophisticated militaries and, in Finland's case, a country with a remarkable tradition of national defense. Both Finland and Sweden are in a region on one of Europe's front lines and meeting places with Russia.
Putin justified his invasion of West-looking Ukraine as pushing back against NATO and the West as, he said, they encroached ever closer on Russia. A NATO that includes Finland and Sweden would come as an ultimate rebuke for Putin's war, empowering the defensive alliance in a strategically important region, surrounding Russia in the Baltic Sea and Arctic Ocean, and crowding NATO up against Russia's western border for more than 800 additional miles .
But as Putin grew more confrontational, Sweden reinstated conscription and otherwise moved to rebuild its military. Sweden has a capable navy and a high-tech air force. Like Finland, Sweden has a valued homegrown defense industry; Sweden is one of the smallest countries in the world to build its own fighter jets.
The U.S. and NATO are likely to increase their presence around the Baltic and Arctic with the accession of the two Scandinavian countries.
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