International [NATO News] What Sweden brings to NATO as its Newest Member

Vladimir Putin has issued fresh warnings that Russia would respond in kind if Nato set up military infrastructure in Finland and Sweden after they joined the US-led alliance.

He said it was inevitable that Moscow's relations with Helsinki and Stockholm would sour over Nato membership.


 
Nothing new.
In february they yelled that Finland might almost die without natural gas from Russia.
So no wonder why they now want to join NATO.
 
Our news say this was all about F-16 thing with usa really
Turkey couldn't get the F35 so at least they got something..

Summary: F-16 for Turkey, F-35 for Greece, NATO memberships for Sweden and Finland, who agreed to a memorandum of understanding with Turkey that really has no legal value (basically a letter of intent jointly signed by all 3 foreign ministers, nothing is approved by any legislatures) that allowed Erdogan to play it up for his domestic crowd.

The squabbling kids are happily enjoying their family dinner now that grandpa promised he'll try to get them their favorite icecream flavors for desserts (pending Congress approval ofcourse).

Everybody are satisfied for the time being, except creepy neighbor Putin looking in from outside the window, fuming as to how the heck could all this happened. He wanted to carve out a Moscow-friendly buffer zone, but ended up doubling the direct border with NATO instead.
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Map shows how Russia's border with NATO would more than double with Finland and Sweden as members

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A map showing how NATO's current border with Russia compares to its border if Sweden and Finland join.

Sweden and Finland applied on Wednesday to join the NATO military alliance, likely frustrating a long-term aim of President Vladimir Putin to roll NATO borders back.

If accepted, their presence would instantly more than double the border between NATO countries and Russia, from around 750 miles to around 1,600.

At present, NATO has land borders with Russia spanning 754 miles across northern Norway, eastern Latvia and Estonia, and the borders with Poland and Lithuania around Russia's Kaliningrad region.

Finland joining would add 830 miles of continuous border along northwestern Russia, taking the total to 1,584 miles. Sweden has no land border with Russia, but is a major presence along the coast of the Baltic Sea.

The increase in public and political support in Sweden and Finland for joining NATO came after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.

Experts have said the development is an own goal for Russia, which partly justified its invasion of Ukraine as a way to stop NATO expanding further.

Russian officials have repeatedly threatened the two countries, saying they would have retaliate against a membership bid. As the application became a reality, Russia moderated its tone.

https://www.businessinsider.com/map...r-expands-with-finaland-sweden-members-2022-5
 
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Biden to Discuss With Erdogan the Sale of F-16 Jets to Turkey
By Selcan Hacaoglu, Jordan Fabian, and Jenny Leonard | June 29, 2022,​

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US President Joe Biden and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will discuss the sale of dozens of new F-16 warplanes to modernize Turkey’s fleet on the sidelines of a NATO summit.

The meeting later on Wednesday in Madrid comes after Erdogan dropped his opposition to Swedish and Finnish bids to join NATO, bringing the alliance one step closer to bolstering its eastern front with Russia. That move appears to have won him US backing to strengthen the air force of Turkey, the second-largest military force in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

“The US Department of Defense fully supports Turkey’s modernization plans for its F-16 fleet,” Celeste Wallander, assistant US defense secretary, told reporters. “These plans are in the works and they need to be worked through our contracting processes, but the United States supports Turkey’s modernization of its fighter fleet, because that is the contribution to NATO security and therefore American security.”

Earlier, both the US and Turkey ruled out any bargaining on long-standing requests like F-16 fighter jets in exchange for allowing Sweden and Finland to begin the process of joining the alliance.

The Turkish leader’s decision to let the Nordics’ NATO bids proceed paved the way for a formal meeting with the US president, according to a senior Biden administration official. The two leaders are expected to discuss a full range of issues, the official said, which includes Turkey’s long-standing defense requests.

Erdogan is now seeking to capitalize on a relatively positive atmosphere in relations with NATO and the US after a period of frosty ties over his government’s purchase of advanced Russian air defenses.

That led the Pentagon to oust Turkey from the program to buy -- and help build -- Lockheed Martin Corp.’s more advanced F-35 fighter in 2019 on the grounds that Russian S-400 missile systems might be used to gather intelligence on the stealth jet.

In September, Turkey sent a formal request to the US to buy 40 new F-16 Block 70 aircraft and nearly 80 kits from Lockheed Martin to modernize its existing fighters.

Turkey hopes to eventually develop its own jets but meantime is overdue to retire its F-4 jets and wants to upgrade its F-16 fleet as a stopgap measure. The F-16 deal is potentially worth $6 billion, but requires full support of Biden’s administration to win approval of the Congress for the sale.

The Biden administration in May asked Congress to approve a separate sale of weapons and equipment upgrades to Turkey’s fleet of American-made F-16 fighter jets which is expected to exceed $500 million. The informal reviews submitted to Congress include the proposed sale of Sidewinder missiles, Amraam missiles and software and hardware updates to F-16 cockpits already in Turkey.

The Turkish government has sought a middle ground toward the war in Ukraine, refraining to burn its bridges with Russian President Vladimir Putin -- in part fearing a rupture would put Turkish forces deployed in Syria at risk of attack by Russian-backed Syrian government troops.

However, it has supplied Kyiv with lethal Turkish-made armed drones and shut its straits and air space to Russian military ships and aircraft.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...port-in-talks-with-biden-to-buy-f-16-fighters
 
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Very dramatic 30 min vid sun made about defence of finland

 
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Nothing to see here. Just ignore all of Erdogan's unfounded concerns about Sweden.



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(Via Google Translate)

Here are Swedish members of parliament from the Left Party with the PKK's flag stamped as terror.

The action was carried out in the middle of Almedalen and, according to V politicians, had the party's support.

- We do not want the PKK to be on the terror list, says Lorena Delgado Varas who sits on the V's party board.

https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/66Lk6o/v-topparna-haller-pkk-flagga-i-almedalen
 
Vladimir Putin has issued fresh warnings that Russia would respond in kind if Nato set up military infrastructure in Finland and Sweden after they joined the US-led alliance.

He said it was inevitable that Moscow's relations with Helsinki and Stockholm would sour over Nato membership.



Oh no we are so scared! Don't nuke us Vlad!
 
NATO nations sign accession protocols for Sweden, Finland
July 5, 2022 at 2:50 p.m. UTC By RAF CASERT​

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BRUSSELS — (AP) — The 30 NATO allies signed off on the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland on Tuesday, sending the membership bids of the two nations to the alliance capitals for legislative approvals — and possible political trouble in Turkey.

The move further increases Russia's strategic isolation in the wake of its invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February and military struggles there since.

“This is truly a historic moment for Finland, for Sweden and for NATO,” the head of the alliance, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, said.

The 30 ambassadors and permanent representatives formally approved decisions made at a NATO summit in Madrid last week, when the leaders of member nations invited Russia’s neighbor Finland and Scandinavian partner Sweden to join the military club.

Securing parliamentary approval for the new members in Turkey, however, could still pose a problem even though Sweden, Finland and Turkey reached a memorandum of understanding at the Madrid summit.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Ankara could block the process if the two countries failed to grant Turkey’s demands for the extradition of people it views as terror suspects. The people wanted in Turkey have links to outlawed Kurdish groups or the network of an exiled cleric accused of a failed 2016 coup in Turkey.

He said Turkey’s Parliament could refuse to ratify the deal. It is a potent threat since NATO accession must be formally approved by all 30 member states, which gives each a blocking right.

Stoltenberg said he expected no change of heart. “There were security concerns that needed to be addressed. And we did what we always do at NATO. We found common ground,” he said.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has given the process added urgency. It will ensconce the two nations in the Western military alliance and give NATO more clout, especially in the face of Moscow’s military threat.

“We will be even stronger and our people will be even safer as we face the biggest security crisis in decades,” Stoltenberg said.

At a news conference, the foreign ministers of Sweden and Finland were asked whether the memorandum specified people who would have to be extradited to Turkey. Both ministers said no such list was part of the agreement.

“We will honor the memorandum fully. There is, of course, no lists or anything like that in the memorandum, but what we will do is to have better cooperation when it comes to terrorists,” Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said.

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto was equally adamant.

“Everything that was agreed in Madrid is stated in the document. There are no hidden documents behind that or any agreements behind that,” Haavisto said.

Every alliance nation has different legislative challenges and procedures to deal with, and it could take several more months for the two Nordic nations to take their place as official NATO members.

Denmark and Canada were quickest out of the blocks. They handed over their ratification documents in Washington as the first NATO countries just hours after the accession protocols were signed in Brussels, Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod told The Associated Press by phone.

“It was a good signal not only to Sweden and Finland, but to other NATO countries that the speed of ratification is important,” he said. “We hope this inspires other countries to react fast.”

The documents need to be handed over in Washington because NATO's founding treaty was signed there in 1949.

Germany's parliament is set to ratify the membership bids Friday, according to the Free Democrats, a partner party in the country's coalition government. Other parliaments might only get to the approval process after long summer breaks.

“I look forward to a swift ratification process,” Haavisto said.

In the meantime, the protocols approved Tuesday bring both nations deeper into NATO’s fold already. As close partners, they already attended some meetings that involved issues that immediately affected them. As official invitees, they can attend all meetings of the ambassadors even if they do not yet have any voting rights.

https://www.whio.com/news/nato-nations-sign/A2JZMHPGOIQJKMPCLPHPMTBQAE/?outputType=amp
 
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The lone dissenter, Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), can go suck Putin off.

---


Track progress:

☑️ Canada - 5 July
☑️ Denmark - 5 July
☑️ Iceland - 5 July
☑️ Norway - 5 July
☑️ Estonia - 6 July
☑️ United Kingdom - 6 July
☑️ Albania - 7 July
☑️ Germany - 8 July

☑️ Netherlands - 12 July
☑️ Luxembourg - 12 July
☑️ Bulgaria - 13 July
☑️ Latvia - 14 July
☑️ Slovenia - 14 July
☑️ Croatia - 15 July
☑️ Poland - 20 July
☑️ Lithuania - 20 July
☑️ Belgium - 20 July
☑️ Romania - 21 July
☑️ North Macedonia - 27 July
☑️ Montenegro - 28 July
☑️ France - 2 August
☑️ Italy - 3 August
☑️ United-States - 3 August
☑️ Czech Republic - 27 August
☑️ Greece - 15 September
☑️ Portugal - 16 September
☑️ Spain - 21 September
☑️ Slovakia - 27 September


UPCOMING VOTES:
Hungary
Türkiye

https://www.nato-pa.int/content/finland-sweden-accession
 
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Rand Paul's amendment stating that NATO decisions can't supersede Congress's authority to declare war was shot down by the Senate.

I feel that is uncomforting.
 
Biden signs ratification documents approving NATO membership for Finland and Sweden
PUBLISHED TUE, AUG 9 2022

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WASHINGTON President Joe Biden signed ratification documents Tuesday bringing Finland and Sweden one step closer to joining the NATO alliance.

″[Russian President Vladimir] Putin thought he could break us apart,” Biden said from the East Room of the White House. “Our alliance is closer than ever, it is more united than ever, and after Finland and Sweden join we will be stronger than ever.”


Last week, the Senate voted 95 to 1 to ratify the entrance of Finland and Sweden into the world’s most powerful military alliance.

In May, both nations began the formal process of applying to NATO amid the backdrop of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Moscow, long wary of NATO expansion, has opposed the two nations’ plans to join the alliance.

Both Finland and Sweden already meet many of the requirements to be NATO members. Some of the requirements include having a functioning democratic political system, a willingness to provide economic transparency and the ability to make military contributions to NATO missions.

“They will meet every NATO requirement, we are confident of that,” Biden said before signing the documents.

Earlier this year, Biden welcomed leaders from both countries to the White House and pledged to work with the Senate — which has to sign off on U.S. approval of NATO bids — and the other 29 members of the alliance to swiftly bring Sweden and Finland into the group.


At the time Biden, flanked by Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, said the two countries would “make NATO stronger.” He called their moves to join the pact a “victory for democracy.”

After Biden’s signature, the governments of the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey will still need to sign the instruments of ratification.

“I urge the remaining allies to complete the ratification process as quickly as possible,” Biden said, a development that must occur by the end of September. “The United States is committed to the transatlantic alliance. We are going to write the future we want to see.”

In June, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the leaders of the alliance had reached a deal to admit Finland and Sweden after resolving the concerns of holdout Turkey.

Previously, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would not approve the applications, citing their support for Kurdish organizations that Turkey considers security threats.

During a NATO summit in Madrid, the foreign ministers of Finland, Sweden and Turkey signed a memorandum to confirm that Turkey will back the new NATO bids.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/09/biden-to-ratify-finland-and-swedens-nato-membership-bids.html
 
Rand Paul's amendment stating that NATO decisions can't supersede Congress's authority to declare war was shot down by the Senate.

I feel that is uncomforting.

Rand Paul's amendment is his most useless proposal yet, and this time it's down-right embarrassing, so I'm glad the Senate promptly tossed it in the trash where it belongs.

Why? Because the NATO Treaty itself clearly stated in Article 11 that "This Treaty shall be ratified and its provisions carried out by the Parties in accordance with their respective constitutional processes".

How on Earth does ANYONE with above-average reading/comprehension would look at NATO members carrying out its provisions (including Article 5) in accordance with their respective constitutional processes and make the ass-backward argument that it actually means NATO'S provisions "supersedes Congress' authority" in any capacity at all? o_O

The only logical explanation here is that Rand Paul never bothered to read the actual NATO treaty itself before coming up with this dumb idea, and I'm going to assume that the handful of people who agreed with his asinine interpretation never bothered to read it either. Would that be a fair assessment?

Ether that or none of them can actually read at grade school's level, which would be discomforting indeed.
 
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Wow this has been moving fast. Maybe Ukraine wasn’t getting into NATO after all.
 
Wow this has been moving fast. Maybe Ukraine wasn’t getting into NATO after all.
This.
More than this: despite candidate status for EU de facto is lesser worth than piece of toilet paper...

If Russia didn't invaded, they for sure during next 4-7 years didn't had get even this.
Not alone to talk about NATO.


Moldova too maybe is NATO threat and therefore Russia is using their taxpayers money to support " seperatists " in Moldova? 30 years in row.
Nor Moldova nor Ukr or West or ...Russia...needs them de facto...
Only maybe just to have place from where create tensions or some war..
 
Scholz confident Sweden's NATO membership 'will now progress very quickly'
16.08.2022

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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday that he expected rapid progress on Finland and Sweden's NATO accession bids.

Asked in Sweden whether he expected continued resistance from Turkey on Stockholm's bid to join NATO, Scholz said "I have great confidence that it will now progress very quickly."

He said he expected every NATO member still to ratify the Nordic countries' bids "to do so soon, including Turkey."

"In Finland and Sweden, we are gaining two valued allies, who will strengthen NATO's defensive capabilities and therefore our collective security," Scholz said in Stockholm alongside the country's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.

Sweden and Finland, both neutral throughout the Cold War, applied to join NATO in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Turkey had resisted the bid, arguing that the two countries harbored what it considers "terrorists" from Turkey, usually referring either to Kurds or to allies of Fethullah Gulen, an opponent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Sweden's Andersson said her government would stick to the terms of the memorandum of understanding signed with Turkey on the issue. She gave the example of a man extradited to Turkey on suspicion of fraud last week, saying the decision was made "according to Swedish and international law, and we will continue to work that way."

War in Ukraine prompted 'historic decisions' in Sweden, Germany

Scholz said that Russia's invasion had shown that the rules of the past decades appeared to have been thrown out of the window. He even used the German phrase that roughly translates as "epochal change" (Zeitenwende) that he also used when announcing an overhaul to German defense policy soon after the invasion.

"We can no longer be certain that what applied in previous decades — that borders should not be redrawn by violence and that one doesn't try to attack one's neighbor to take some of its territory — still applies," Scholz said.

He said he was looking forward to Sweden and Finland entering NATO, saying "we need them," adding that he believed this would make already "close and trusting" bilateral ties even closer.

Andersson said that in "dark times" for Ukraine and Europe, "European cooperation and unity is our strongest asset."

She went on to praise rapid decisions such as EU sanctions and to note that for Sweden and Germany — both largely pacifist since 1945 — electing to provide Ukraine with weapons had not been a trivial decision. Germany, in particular, faced criticism for its perceived sluggishness on this issue as one of the world's major arms exporters.

"The unity European countries showed in response to this war was important and was impressive. We very quickly decided on sanctions against Russia, unprecedented in their scope and size," Andersson said. "And both our countries and other European countries made historic decisions, such as electing to send military support to Ukraine and bolster our own defenses."

https://m.dw.com/en/scholz-confiden...hip-will-now-progress-very-quickly/a-62819906
 
Rand Paul's amendment is his most useless proposal yet, and this time it's down-right embarrassing, so I'm glad the Senate promptly tossed it in the trash where it belongs.

Why? Because the NATO Treaty itself clearly stated in Article 11 that "This Treaty shall be ratified and its provisions carried out by the Parties in accordance with their respective constitutional processes".

How on Earth does ANYONE with above-average reading/comprehension would look at NATO members carrying out its provisions (including Article 5) in accordance with their respective constitutional processes and make the ass-backward argument that it actually means NATO'S provisions "supersedes Congress' authority" in any capacity at all? o_O

The only logical explanation here is that Rand Paul never bothered to read the actual NATO treaty itself before coming up with this dumb idea, and I'm going to assume that the handful of people who agreed with his asinine interpretation never bothered to read it either. Would that be a fair assessment?

Ether that or none of them can actually read at grade school's level, which would be discomforting indeed.

We live in a country where the meaning of the word “is” has been argued at length during trial proceedings.

Sometimes redundant laws are necessary, sometimes they aren’t.

I’m rather certain Rand Paul was looking to have explicit wording regarding the relationship between the NATO treaty and the US Constitution. And not just that, but to have it explicitly codified by the US, as opposed to relying on NATO documentation.

No reason to rely on any other government or body define our relationships with them other than our own.
 


Sweden is on high alert for Russian meddling in their election which takes place next week. Russian President Putin has warned NATO against beefing up its presence in both Sweden and Finland, which are both joining the alliance. As special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports, Putin’s threats against the Nordic nations have special significance for the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.
 
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