Free Republic

NATO leaders meeting in Madrid issued a formal invitation to Finland and Sweden to become members, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted the two to end decades of military non-alignment and seek accession... Joining NATO marks a significant shift for both countries. Sweden would end more than 200 years of non-alignment, while Finland, which shares an 810 mile border with Russia, would end a policy of neutrality adopted as a Soviet-imposed condition of peace following World War Two. The process to finalize now requires ratification by all 30 current allies. That could take months, but the alliance stressed that “the...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has removed his objections to the applications for NATO membership submitted by Sweden and Finland, guaranteeing those two previously unaligned nations will join the West’s bulwark alliance against Russian aggression.In May, Sweden and Finland announced they would ask to become members of the NATO military alliance. This was an unprecedented step that even the threat of the USSR had not been able to accomplish (Finland Announces It Will Join NATO, Sweden to Follow, While Moscow Makes Its Usual Threats). Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine did accomplish what Joe Stalin couldn’t in no small...