**From the Standard Map Service Network Xinhua News Agency, Brussels, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Hungarian parliament voted on the 26th to approve the bill on Sweden's accession to NATO, clearing the last obstacle for Sweden to join NATO. There are ** reports that NATO will complete the last piece of the puzzle to contain Russia in the Baltic Sea, and the Baltic Sea will become a "NATO lake".
With NATO's successful expansion to the north, Sweden may risk becoming involved in a military conflict and falling victim to bloc confrontation. How will the regional situation develop after Sweden's accession to the treaty? And who is constantly stirring up regional security? Xinhua News Agency reporter will solve the situation for you
Sweden, why isn't it neutral?
Sweden** said that Sweden had not been involved in the war since 1814 and "pursued a policy of non-alignment in peacetime and neutrality in wartime". And all this will undoubtedly be wiped out with Sweden's accession to NATO.
After the escalation of the Ukraine crisis in February 2022, Sweden and Finland abandoned their long-standing policy of military non-alignment and applied to NATO at the same time in May of that year. NATO member states signed the protocol on accession to the treaty in July of that year, but it could only enter into force after all member states had to be approved by their respective legislative procedures.
Finland was allowed to join NATO in April last year, becoming the 31st member of NATO. Sweden was not approved by Turkey until January this year, and the Hungarian parliament voted to make Sweden's NATO membership the last hurdle. Under pressure from the United States and its NATO allies, Hungary finally "cleared" Sweden's accession to NATO.
The Hungarian parliament approved the bill on Sweden's accession to NATO on the 26th with a vote of 188 in favor and 6 against. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Ferti Otilo) After the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO has repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to woo the two countries to join the country. The escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has prompted Finland and Sweden to reconsider their positions. To put it simply, Sweden and Finland will enjoy the benefits of NATO's collective defense clause, which means that an armed attack on any one NATO member will be considered an attack on all NATO members. However, their accession to NATO will increase the tension between the security posture between NATO and Russia.
In an exclusive interview with Xinhua News Agency, Jan Obery, founder of the Swedish Association for Transnational Peace and Future Studies, said that Sweden originally supported disarmament and denuclearization, and was a potential mediator outside the confrontation between NATO and the Russian camp.
Russia has previously said that Sweden's constant neutrality is an important factor in maintaining stability and trust in the Baltic region for decades. "Sweden's accession to NATO will cause significant damage to the security of Northern Europe and the entire European continent. The Russian Federation will have to resort to countermeasures of a military-technical and other nature in order to eliminate the resulting threat to ***. ”
Russia, surrounded.
Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has expanded eastward several times, and its geographical scope has gradually expanded to Russia's borders, constantly squeezing Russia's strategic space. Today, NATO's northern expansion includes Sweden and Finland, and it has formed a clear confrontation with Russia in the Nordic region, posing a security challenge to the whole of Europe.
At the beginning of NATO's existence, only one member state, Norway, bordered Russia, with a land border of 196 kilometers. Subsequently, after Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the three Baltic states joined NATO in 2004, the land border between NATO and Russia increased to about 1,200 kilometers. Finland has a land border with Russia of more than 1,300 kilometres, and now that NATO has joined NATO, the length of the land border with Russia has doubled.
People attend an event in Stockholm, Sweden, April 22, 2023. Nearly 20 cities across Sweden held activities on the same day, ** held large-scale international military exercises in Sweden to oppose Sweden's accession to NATO. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Patrick Ekstrand) After Sweden and Finland join NATO, Russia's border with NATO will extend from the Arctic Ocean to the Baltic Sea. The Russian enclave of Kaliningrad Oblast will be surrounded by NATO member states, and the Baltic Sea is also almost completely surrounded by NATO countries. The West ** commented that after Finland joined NATO last year, Sweden's "accession" means that the Baltic countries around the Baltic Sea, except for Russia, will be included in the NATO map, and the Baltic Sea will become a "NATO lake".
Sweden's strategically important island of Gotland will become NATO's forward position in the Baltic Sea. From here it is possible to control the sea routes of the Baltic Sea, including access to the Gulf of Finland, at the end of which is St. Petersburg, the second largest city in Russia. Not far southeast of the island is Kaliningrad, where the headquarters of the Russian Baltic Fleet is located.
Sweden's Minister of Civil Defence, Karl-Oskar Boleyn, expressed concern about Sweden's involvement in the war in a statement in January. Swedish Radio also recently reported that if there is a conflict on NATO's northern border, foreign teams, ammunition and fuel will be transported to all parts of Sweden, which will increase the threat to Sweden from long-range systems such as missiles and drones.
NATO expansion, regional security?
After the vote in the Hungarian parliament, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Sweden's accession "makes NATO stronger, Sweden safer, and all of us safer." What is the concept of security in Stoltenberg's mouth? Is it really safe? Who is stirring up regional security? Now Ukraine and Europe may speak for themselves.
NATO has long exaggerated Russia's threat to European countries, especially NATO members in eastern Europe. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, a well-known American news anchor, Putin said in early February that Russia has no territorial claims to Poland, Latvia and other countries on the European continent and will not use force against Poland unless Poland attacks Russia.
On December 8, 2023, Vladimir Putin attends a ceremony to celebrate the Day of the Heroes of the Fatherland at the Kremlin in Moscow. Xinhua TASS But NATO, for its part, is constantly moving. In January this year, NATO launched the largest transatlantic military exercise since the end of the Cold War, pointing the sword at Russia; In mid-February, Stoltenberg said that 18 NATO members were expected to spend 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense this year, compared with only three ...... in 2014
At the end of last year, Sweden signed a new bilateral defense cooperation agreement with the United States and opened up the use of 17 military bases in the country to the US military, allowing the US military to pre-deploy military equipment and operate on Swedish territory. Finland and the United States subsequently signed a defense cooperation agreement, allowing U.S. troops access to 15 military bases and facilities in Finland, as well as the storage of equipment on Finnish territory.
The Russian Ministry of Defense previously pointed out that Sweden and Finland's "accession" is regarded as the most urgent challenge facing Russia, because NATO troops and equipment may be deployed in these two countries. Putin has said that if NATO deploys troops and military infrastructure in both countries, Russia will inevitably respond.
Dmitry Danilov, an expert at the Institute of European Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that after Sweden and Finland join NATO, the military strength of the northern flank of the alliance will be greatly strengthened, and Russia will correspondingly strengthen its military activities in the north, which is not conducive to regional security and stability. (Reporter: Fu Yiming, He Miao, Chen Hao, Editor: Yuan Yuan, Wang Fengfeng, Lu Yu, Shen Haoyang).