On February 26, the Hungarian National Assembly formally approved Sweden's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) with a vote of 188 in favor and six against, removing the last obstacle for Sweden to join the treaty and officially becoming the 32nd member of NATO. In addition, Finland has previously joined NATO in April 2023.
With the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, all nine Baltic countries have joined NATO, and the Baltic Sea has become NATO's "inner lake" in addition to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad and the port city of St. Petersburg!
This is a historic moment! (changes in large time spans and drastic changes in the geopolitical situation).
Why do you say that, the three parties involved, NATO, Sweden and Russia, are talking separately.
1. Sweden
1. It marks Sweden's renunciation of its status as a neutral country for more than 200 years.
Sweden has been a neutral country since 1814 and has a history of military non-alignment for hundreds of years, and has remained neutral since 1919, despite its involvement in the Finnish Civil War in 1918.
2. Sweden avenged the Battle of Poltava in 1709
Sweden is a small country in Northern Europe in everyone's impression, and it has no sense of existence, because Sweden was already a neutral country when we began to open our eyes to the world in the Qing Dynasty. Sweden was an absolute European power for a long time (before 1709) (not to be expanded here).
The Battle of Poltava was a battle fought on June 27, 1709 between the army of Tsar Peter the Great and the army of King Charles XII of Sweden, and was the most famous battle of the Great Northern War. The decisive victory of the Russian army put an end to the era when Sweden became a European power.
After the Thirty Years' War in Europe, Sweden dominated the Baltic Sea and its coastal areas. When King Charles XII of Sweden ascended the throne in 1697 (at the age of 15), he had the most powerful armed forces in northern Europe, with 42 naval battleships and 150,000 troops, while the Northern Alliance, which was fighting Sweden at the time, had only 8 troops in total50,000 people, totaling **40,000, Poland, Saxony 250,000, Denmark 20,000, except for Denmark, Russia and Poland have no navy. The young king carried out military activities with military superiority, led his army at the age of 18, and won many great victories, but after the attack, he collapsed, and finally lost his position as the overlord of the north.
3. It reproduces the glory of Gustav, Sweden's blockade of the former Russia 400 years ago
This situation is very similar to the situation more than 400 years ago. The Treaty of Stolpova of 1617 locked Russia's western access to the sea, keeping Russia "shielded" beyond the Baltic Sea for a century. And this achievement was achieved by the famous Swedish king "Lion of Northern Europe" Gustav II.
In February 1617, the two countries signed the Treaty of Stolbova,* ceding southwestern Karelia, Ingria, and Notteburg, renunciating claims to Estonia and Livonia, paying an indemnity of 20,000 rubles, and Sweden returning Novgorod to the throne of Mikhail Romanov. This treaty greatly benefited Sweden, and Karelia and Inglia united Finland with Estonia, giving Sweden control of the entire Gulf of Finland coast and cutting off the geographical connection with the Baltic Sea. This would be of no less strategic value to Sweden than it would have been in the Thirty Years' War.
Thus, after Gustavus's triumph, he proudly declared to the Estates: "Now this enemy cannot go to sea without our permission." The wide lakes of Ladoga and Chud, 30 miles of marshes, and a number of large fortresses are enough to keep it away from us. In the name of God, I hope that it will be difficult to take a step beyond the thunder pool. ”
2. Significance for NATO - NATO's eastward expansion has come to an end
NATO was established on August 25, 1949, led by the United States, and joined by 12 countries in Europe and North America, namely: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Italy, and Portugal.
It is a regional international military organization, and the scope of its defense cooperation is basically limited to Europe.
Over the next 30 years, four more countries joined: Greece, Turkey, the Federal Republic of Germany and Spain.
NATO's six eastward expansions.
Since 1999, NATO has undergone six eastward expansions, advanced more than 1,000 kilometers eastward, and absorbed 15 countries to join NATO, developing to 31 countries today.
First eastward expansion: Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic in 1999.
Second eastward expansion: In 2004, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia 7 countries.
Third eastward expansion: Albania, Croatia, 2009.
Fourth eastward expansion: Montenegro, 2017.
Fifth eastward expansion: North Macedonia, 2020.
Sixth eastward expansion: Finland and Sweden in 2023 (overjoyed!) ）。
Three, for Russia
As the so-called few families are happy and a few are sad!
The joys and sorrows of nations are not the same!
Thou art honey, thy arsenic!
Russia is slowly losing the last legacy of Peter the Great.
The Baltic Sea becomes an internal lake for NATO! Petrograd on the Baltic coast will suffer a devastating blow to its status as the most important center. The Baltic direction has already been completely blocked by NATO. Emperor Prussia prayed that there would be no bridge between Denmark and Sweden, at least not as low as the mouth of the Tumen River.
The Baltic direction is blocked, and for Russia it can only smash the Black Sea direction. I hope the Black Sea will no longer become an internal lake for NATO! But it's strange to say that those who want to join are beaten, but those who join don't dare to squeak.
In the Three-Body Problem, how does Da Liu describe the fall of Constantinople: In 476 AD, Western Rome fell, and in 1453, Constantinople fell, like a comet, dragging a long comet tail, after a thousand years, disappeared into the night sky of history.
The fate of Russia, after the collapse of the Union in 1991, like a meteor, slid over the tail of a long comet, I don't know how to hold on?
History is profound and extensive, and Russia, which claims to be the Third Rome, actually has a chance to get that "golden apple" in history. The timing was in World War I (in World War I, Tsarist Russia participated in the Sykes-Pico Pact and won Constantinople, which could occupy Ottoman Turkey), who let himself collapse first!
End of this article. In the next issue, we will talk about the Fifth Middle East War and Beirut.
My gzh: Herodotus, a 40-year-old engineer, is not panicked at all, like a tree at the door, the flowers are in full bloom, and the branches are luxuriant. As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict heats up, the Middle East theme has been opened. This is the seventy-second chapter. Let's use common sense to fend off the prejudices of the times.