International [NATO News] Putin: lifting Ukraine missile restrictions would "put NATO at war with Russia"

[GhostZ06]

Bojo has made it his business to start handing out UK's business cards now that they're no longer part of the EU. Can't blame a guy for trying.

his big thing is CANZUK

 

[Cole train]

that looks intense

Not really, i always thought these big military exercises are big jerkoff sessions for generals lol

 

[PrinceOfPain]

Lol. This is not worth the trade-off of pissing off India and ruining the European economies.
No offense to Finland or Sweden, but your countries are about as important as mine (less, probably), and NATO's not gonna protect you from anything that's actually formidable.

 

[GhostZ06]

Lol. This is not worth the trade-off of pissing off India and ruining the European economies.
No offense to Finland or Sweden, but your countries are about as important as mine (less, probably), and NATO's not gonna protect you from anything that's actually formidable.

Brah look where you are lol


in terms of energy production, Rare earth and a lot of things i think they are a bit more important

 

[Cole train]

Lol. This is not worth the trade-off of pissing off India and ruining the European economies.
No offense to Finland or Sweden, but your countries are about as important as mine (less, probably), and NATO's not gonna protect you from anything that's actually formidable.

Well known consern here buut people want in so in we go

 

[Arkain2K]

The President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö has told a news conference in Helsinki that Russia's invasion of Ukraine "changed the picture" on the country's security.

In a message to Russia he said, "you caused this - look at the mirror".

 

[PrinceOfPain]

Brah look where you are lol


in terms of energy production, Rare earth and a lot of things i think they are a bit more important

Methinks you need to think more clearly - shake loose that Western bias of yours.
I didn't say my country was lovely. But between us and Nigeria, we're amongst the most established footholds into Africa, with us often being the better option due to our fairly advanced industry, our (relatively) stable institutions, and our complete lack of Islamic terrorism.
That foothold in Africa alone likely makes us infinitely more important than Sweden or Finland. We obviously also have Rare Earths - comparing our natural resources (tapped and untapped) to pretty much any European nation is a bit of a joke - why would you do that? The Europeans have barely anything that doesn't require extensive supply chains and huge energy costs (when they're dependent on Russia, who they've made an enemy of, for energy).

Sweden and Finland are ridiculously more advanced, more comfortable, and happier countries, but that's not important.
They don't offer anything particularly unique or useful. They're just another two European nations with dwindling populations who were already reliably on the "right" side. Their addition to a Western alliance is largely useless. (It's not unlike the QUAD - without India, the whole thing is a joke, an exercise in pointlessness. Australia and Japan don't really add anything, since they're already all on the same side.)
As such, South Africa is very likely a hell of a lot more important than either. So, just imagine how important India is and how much of a self-own it was for the Americans to screw with that relationship. India's probably more important than the entirety of the EU - especially considering the state the EU's going to be in if it sticks to its sanctioning of Russia, and the centrality of India's importance to the integration of Eurasia.

Again, Sweden and Finland are probably less important than even my country - so, compared to India, they're pretty much nothing but a really, really shitty consolation prize.

This also isn't a good thing for us. Mattering at all just makes us a more likely target for some or the other Western intervention.

 

[SandisLL]

We don't need lecture from South Africa how to live in europe.
More than this: we already are going off natural gas for long term.....because it is expensive, with growing prices and .....ofc crazy, aggressive Russia.

I don't care about India, China and Russia economy, dear god, russia just should piss off.

And no, India isn't important for us.
I no case.
If we sanctioned India, this will bring us a lot of jobs.
All crap India manufactures we are able to manufacture in europe. Certainly we don't need nor food for India nor their cheap programmers.
Lesser will be better.

While if EU will ban substances for pharmacy industry import from India, we will have a lot jobs.
It isn't that we can't manufacture stuff we are importing from India.
It is just capitalism: buy cheaper and use....

This mentality prince does have looks like russia's mentality: we have energoresources bla bla bla.

While reality is that now even China does have higher net GDP per capita than Russia and South Korea's economy is larger than Russia's economy.

I do know how this guy from South Africa hates europe....

While the same South Africa uses a lot of import from " bad west ".
" Useless and weak according to Prince europe ".

South Africa even isn'f capable to enrich uranium for it's nuclear power plant....
Guess where centrifuges are made?

 

[Metusalemi]

https://yle.fi/news/3-12442140

It's official!

Finnish leaders confirm support for Nato application

President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Sanna Marin made the announcement on Thursday morning

 

[Arkain2K]

Finland to apply for NATO membership

The president and prime minister of Finland released a joint statement on Thursday laying out their intention to bring Finland into the NATO alliance following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"As a member of NATO, Finland would strengthen the entire defence alliance," President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin said in the statement. "Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay," they added, saying that they hope the decision will be taken "within the next few days."

Finland shares a long, 1,300-kilometer (810-mile) border with Russia. During the Cold War, Helsinki maintained a form of diplomatic non-alignment between NATO and the Soviet Union, but Moscow's recent aggression has pushed the Baltic state to reconsider its position. Public support in Finland for joining the western alliance has shot up since Russian troops marched into Ukraine, reaching 76% according to a recent poll carried out by public broadcaster YLE. This marks a substantial shift in public perception as previous support for joining NATO had hovered around 25% for many years.

Friendly relations with Russia have soured since the beginning of the invasion with threats from Moscow that any attempt to join NATO would bring consequences. Finland, which fought in wars against the Soviet Union in 1939 and 1944, stepped up its cooperation with NATO following Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014.

 

[Yotsuya]

 

[Yotsuya]

^Top-2 things for Finnish self-esteem: 1) Hockey. 2) Revving off to Russians.

 

[The_Renaissance]

I've been calm about this, but I seriously think this is the final straw for Putin - he's gonna start launching nukes. WWIII will be underway by the summer.

 

[SandisLL]

Anyway better is this than....live in fear from them.

 

[SandisLL]

Now, this is Mother Russia and they are brainwashed russians dreaming to create empire from Lisbon till Vladivostok.
Most likely with work in internet forums and discord channels and....
such work.


The Russian military shot two civilians in the back and it was caught on camera. Before the execution, the occupiers searched the Ukrainians and made sure that they were unarmed citizens. This happened on March 16 in the Kyiv region. : ukraina (reddit.com)

 

[Son of Jamin]

Sweden has officially been neutral in some 200 years and the Minister of Defence said as late as last Autumn that Sweden would never join NATO but then Putler changed everything by invading Ukraine and less then three months later, both Finland and Sweden will most likely apply to NATO in the coming days.

 

[D3THRONED]

Good. Fuck Russia.

 

[Arkain2K]

Finland’s leaders call for NATO membership ‘without delay’
By JARI TANNER | May 12, 2022

​

HELSINKI (AP) — Finland’s leaders said Thursday they’re in favor of rapidly applying for NATO membership, paving the way for a historic expansion of the alliance that could deal a serious blow to Russia as its military struggles with its war in Ukraine.

The annoucement by President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin means that Finland is all but certain to join the Western military alliance, though a few steps remain before the application process can begin. Neighboring Sweden is expected to decide on seeking NATO membership in coming days.

“NATO membership would strengthen Finland’s security. As a member of NATO, Finland would strengthen the entire defence alliance,” Niinisto and Marin said in a joint statement.

“Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay,” they said. “We hope that the national steps still needed to make this decision will be taken rapidly within the next few days.”

Russia reacted to the development with a warning. The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Finland joining NATO would “inflict serious damage to Russian-Finnish relations as well as stability and security in Northern Europe.”

“Russia will be forced to take retaliatory steps of military-technical and other characteristics in order to counter the emerging threats to its national security,” the ministry said.

“History will determine why Finland needed to turn its territory into a bulwark of military face-off with Russia while losing independence in making its own decisions,” it added.

Before the ministry issued its statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Finland’s decision wouldn’t help stability and security in Europe. Peskov said Russia’s response would depend on NATO’s moves to expand its infrastructure closer to Russian borders.

Finland has the longest border with Russia out of all the European Union’s 27 members.

Previously, the Kremlin had warned of “military and political repercussions” if Sweden and Finland decided to become a NATO member. Should they seek to join the alliance, there would be an interim period lasting from when the applications are submitted until ratification by lawmakers in all 30 existing member nations.

In NATO member Estonia, which also borders Russia, Prime Minister Kaja Kallas tweeted that “history being made by our northern neighbors.” She pledged to support “a rapid accession process” for Finland into NATO.

Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde tweeted that Finland’s announcement gave an “important message.”

Finland’s announcement came a day after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited both Finland and Sweden to sign a military cooperation agreement.

The U.K. pledged Wednesday to come to the aid of Sweden and Finland if the two Nordic nations came under attack.

During a joint news conference with Johnson in Helsinki this week, Niinisto said Moscow could only blame itself should his nation of 5.5 million people become a NATO member.

“You (Russia) caused this. Look in the mirror,” the Finnish head of state said Wednesday.

On Thursday, Niinisto tweeted that he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about Finland’s firm support for Ukraine and the country’s intention to join NATO. Niinisto said Zelenskyy “expressed his full support for it.”

In 2017, Sweden and Finland joined the British-led Joint Expeditionary Force, which is designed to be more flexible and respond more quickly than the larger NATO alliance. The force uses NATO standards and doctrine so it can operate in conjunction with the alliance, the United Nations or other multinational coalitions.

Fully operational since 2018, the force has held a number of exercises both independently and in cooperation with NATO.

Russia’s aggression in Ukraine prompted Finland and Sweden to reconsider their traditions of military nonalignment and to contemplate joining NATO itself. Public opinion in the two countries quickly started to shift toward favoring membership, first in Finland and a bit later in Sweden, after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

The latest opinion poll conducted by Finnish public broadcaster YLE showed earlier this week that 76% of Finns are in favor of joining NATO, a big change from earlier years when only 20-30% of respondents favored such military alignment.

Speaking to European Union lawmakers Thursday as Niinisto and Marin made their announcement, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said that Russia’s unpredictable behavior was a serious concern for Finland. He cited Moscow’s readiness to wage “high-risk operations” that could lead to many casualties, including among Russians.

Should Finland become a NATO member, it would represent the biggest change in the Nordic country’s defense and security policy since World War II, when it fought against the Soviet Union.

During the Cold War, Finland stayed away from NATO to avoid provoking the Soviet Union, instead opting to remain a neutral buffer between the East and the West while maintaining good relations with Moscow and also with the United States.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said the military alliance would welcome Finland and Sweden — both of which have strong, modern militaries — with open arms and that he expects the accession process to be speedy and smooth.

NATO officials say the Nordic duo’s accession process could be done “in a couple of weeks.” The most time consuming part of the procedure – ratification of the country’s protocol by the existing NATO members – could be completed in less time than the four or so months it took West Germany, Turkey and Greece to join in the 1950s, when there were only 12 members to ratify their applications.

“These are not normal times,” one NATO official said this week, discussing the possible applications of Finland and Sweden. The official was briefing reporters about the accession process on condition that he not be named as no application has been made by the two countries.

https://apnews.com/article/sweden-finland-sauli-niinisto-4ede1942b679dd15bd3021f9b194cbec

 

[TheGreatA]

Lol. This is not worth the trade-off of pissing off India and ruining the European economies.
No offense to Finland or Sweden, but your countries are about as important as mine (less, probably), and NATO's not gonna protect you from anything that's actually formidable.

I'm not sure what India has to do with it.

 

[SandisLL]

If about India, how important it is in real life.
In my area we have pharmacy factory.
One from buildings is not in active usage.
Cos they are importing some substances from India.
While we had manufactured these in 1960-1980 ies.
It is just cos capitalism for stakeholders to earn more....
We have exp in industrial scale and all blueprints, all exp and skills & equipment to produce this like bread.

I might only be happy if EU had banned trade with India ..
.Banned curse.