Germany very confident Finland and Sweden will join NATO

Germany is very confident Finland and Sweden will join NATO it has been confirmed today, June 20, by Reuters.

A German government source has said they are “very confident” NATO will reach an agreement with Sweden and Finland over the bid for membership of the alliance.

The source did add that it would not be a “catastrophe” if this did not happen.

“As nice as it would be to announce concrete steps, it would not be a catastrophe if it needed a few more weeks,” the source said. “What is decisive from our point of view is there are no insurmountable problems”.

In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland applied to join the Western defence alliance last month but have since faced opposition from Turkey.

NATO was formed in 1949 with the signing of the Washington Treaty. It was founded by the USA, Canada, and ten European countries. It is a military alliance that states all members will come to each other’s aid should there be an armed attack against any single member.

In 1949, Soviet Russian leader Stalin managed to install his leadership and communist governments in most Eastern European counties. This created a buffer zone protecting the USSR from any Western attack.

However, there was a fear that the USSR may do the same to countries in the rest of Europe, and so, in founding NATO, smaller countries were less vulnerable to both Soviet influences and attack.