• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Sweden, Finland Vow Greater Security Cooperation In Shadow Of Ukraine War

March 05, 2022

The Swedish and Finnish prime ministers have told a joint press conference in Helsinki that they will further buttress their security cooperation, amid a surge in diplomatic activity in both those non-NATO countries since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine late last month.

The meeting between visiting Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin follows warnings from Moscow of "retaliatory steps" if either country joins NATO.

Finland and Sweden's defense ministers held meetings concurrently with Andersson and Marin's talks.

The Finnish and Swedish foreign ministers attended a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels on March 4, at which the military alliance rejected calls for a no-fly zone over Ukraine but sought ways to end the fighting.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg left the meeting vowing the alliance would "strengthen our coordination and information-sharing with Finland and Sweden" and said both were involved in all NATO consultations on Ukraine.

He noted that NATO security guarantees only apply to the 30 alliance members, though.

Both are members of the European Union, and Finland shares a 1,340-kilometer border with Russia.

"It's obvious that if Finland and Sweden join NATO, which is first of all a military organization, it will entail serious military-political consequences, which would require retaliatory steps by the Russian Federation," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on February 25.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto met with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House on March 4, with Biden calling Russia's invasion of Ukraine "an attack on the security of Europe."

Based on reporting by Reuters and YLE News

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/finland-sweden-nato- cooperation/31737698.html

Copyright (c) 2022. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.