Putin’s missteps unify the West

In the interests of stability and peace, NATO should ignore Vladimir Putin’s threats and fast-track Sweden and Finland’s membership into the world’s premier military alliance. The decision by the two Nordic nations to abandon decades of neutrality and join NATO is significant amid the crisis over the Russian tyrant’s attack on the sovereignty of democratic Ukraine. As former British foreign secretary William Hague wrote in The Times this week, “nothing could illustrate more vividly the extent of (Mr Putin’s) strategic failure” over Ukraine. It shows, he said, the extent to which Mr Putin has “blundered into uniting the whole of western Europe into a defensive pact”. Mr Hague is right.

With Sweden and Finland added to the current 30 NATO members, Mr Putin will be faced with the strategic challenge he has long railed against. Finland’s 1340km frontier with Russia will double the land border between NATO and Russia. Sweden has no land border with Russia but its NATO membership would boost the alliance’s ability to defend the Baltic States, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, from any threat from Mr Putin. So much for Mr Putin’s specious claim that one of the main reasons for his attack on Ukraine was to prevent NATO’s eastward expansion. It is happening anyway. Mr Putin has no one but himself to blame for Sweden and Finland abandoning their traditional neutrality. Both have large reserves of trained military personnel, and Finland would be able to mobilise an army of 280,000 soldiers

Mr Putin is furious about the prospect of NATO membership for both nations. It feeds the former KGB colonel’s paranoia. He has threatened – as he did over Ukraine – to deploy nuclear missiles if Sweden and Finland join NATO. Brussels should ignore his bluster and ensure there is no delay in agreeing to full membership for Stockholm and Helsinki.

Democratic nations need to join together to defend their freedoms and values against Mr Putin and other despots such as China’s Xi Jinping. As Mr Hague said, that applies not only to Europe but also demands closer NATO partnerships with Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Mongolia in the Asia-Pacific.