MOSCOW, April 29 - RIA Novosti. The accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO is very realistic, but even without joining the alliance, they can deploy NATO bases and military contingents on their territory, Doctor of Political Sciences, associate Professor of the Department of International Security at the Faculty of World Politics of Lomonosov Moscow State University Alexey Fenenko told RIA Novosti.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Thursday that the United States expects a decision by Sweden and Finland on possible NATO membership before the upcoming alliance summit in Madrid in June. The head of American diplomacy stressed that if Finland and Sweden make a choice in favor of joining the alliance, the United States will strongly support their applications.
"It's very realistic. The relevant agreements on the expanded partnership of Sweden and Finland with NATO were prepared back in 2014. True, they were not signed then, but nothing prevents them from returning to this format. So even without joining NATO, there is already a legal basis for the deployment of NATO bases and military contingents on their territory," Fenenko said.
He added that the neutrality of these two countries was actually revised back in 1995. "Their entry into the European Union already meant, in fact, abandoning the policy of neutrality, since the European Union has a common security and defense policy. Therefore, even now they can only be spoken of as conditionally neutral countries," the expert explained.
Finland and Sweden have started talking about the possibility of abandoning long-term neutrality and joining NATO against the background of the Russian military operation in Ukraine. The head of the alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, noted that the alliance would be glad to see Finland and Sweden in its ranks and provide them with the opportunity to join quickly. NATO expects these countries to make independent decisions on possible membership in the alliance in the coming "months and weeks," said the permanent representative of the United States to NATO, Julianne Smith. She added that the United States would welcome the accession of these countries to the alliance.
Russia has repeatedly noted that NATO is aimed at confrontation. The press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov stated that the further expansion of the alliance will not bring greater security to Europe, NATO has an aggressive character. At the same time, he noted that he does not consider the possible accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO an existential threat to Russia.