Explainer-in-brief: Safety in numbers lures Nordics to Nato
Finland’s Prime Minister said yesterday the country would decide “within weeks, not months” if the nation would apply for Nato membership.
Sweden is expected to follow swiftly as the war in Ukraine forces the Nordics to look at their allies.
In Finland, a margin of six to one voters backed membership of the defensive alliance. Finland shares a 830-mile land border with Russia and is particularly sensitive to the threat posed by the Kremlin.
The fight for Ukraine stems from a historic Russian invasion under Catherine the Great, in the 18th century. For Finland, this is an eerie parallel. The country was invaded by Russia from 1809 to 1917 and then again by the Soviet Union from 1939-1940.
Sweden is nervous too after Russian forces violated its airspace repeatedly in the past year.
The Finnish PM Sanna Marin said “Everything changed when Russia invaded Ukraine.”