Biden signs protocol allowing Finland and Sweden to join NATO and says Putin ‘wanted the Finlandization of NATO, but instead he got the NATO-ization of Finland and Sweden’
- ‘Putin thought he could break us apart… weaken our resolve. Instead he’s getting exactly what he did not want,’ Biden told a crowd Tuesday
- ‘Putin wanted the Finlandization of NATO but instead got the NATO-ization of Finland’
- Both Finland and Sweden have taken neutral stances to global conflict historically
- Biden also insisted that the two nations would meet NATO’s requirements for membership. ‘They will meet every NATO requirement, we are confident of that’
President Biden insisted that expanding NATO flew in the face of Vladimir Putin’s aggression and assured that Sweden and Finland would honor the requirements of treaty membership in a bill signing ceremony after the Senate approved of a resolution to include the two Nordic nations.
‘Putin thought he could break us apart… weaken our resolve. Instead he’s getting exactly what he did not want,’ Biden told a crowd Tuesday in the East Room of the White House.
‘Putin wanted the Finlandization of NATO but instead got the NATO-ization of Finland.’
Both Finland and Sweden have taken neutral stances to global conflict historically.
Biden signed the legislation flanked by Swedish ambassador Karin Ulrika Olofsdotter and Finnish ambassador Mikko Hautala.
‘Putin thought he could break us apart… weaken our resolve. Instead he’s getting exactly what he did not want,’ Biden told a crowd Tuesday in the East Room of the White House
Biden signed the legislation flanked by Swedish ambassador Karin Ulrika Olofsdotter and Finnish ambassador Mikko Hautala
The Senate voted in favor of expanding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, 95-1-1 last week. The vote made the U.S. the 23rd nation to ratify the proposed addition. All 30 current NATO members must give their approval.
Only Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., voted against inducting the two nations into the alliance. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted present on the measure.
Biden also insisted that the two nations would meet NATO’s requirements for membership. ‘They will meet every NATO requirement, we are confident of that.’
A key sticking point is NATO’s requirement that member nations spend at least two percent of their GDP on defense.
In tandem with the NATO resolution, the Senate passed an amendment from Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, reiterating the alliance’s requirement that members spend two percent on defense.
Former President Trump was an avid critic of NATO, an alliance which ran up against his ‘America First’ campaign. He called the 30-member bloc ‘obsolete’ and repeatedly accused other nations of not paying their fair share for the shared costs of defense. At one point, he reportedly wanted to pull the US out of NATO.
Just eight of NATO’s 30 nations currently meet the two percent target, according to a March report from NATO Sec. Jens Stoltenberg: United Kingdom, Greece, Croatia, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Biden shakes hands with Karin Olofsdotter, Sweden’s ambassador to the US after signing the bill
Hawley, who voted against the resolution, has long called for reducing troop levels in Europe to shift to an Asia-focused strategy. Paul had submitted an amendment that would have reiterated that the NATO charter’s Article 5 cannot supersede Congress’ ability to declare war but it failed 10-87.
Hawley had argued in an op-ed for The National Interest that the U.S. should focus more on the threat from China than expanding its alliance with European nations.
‘Our foreign policy should be about protecting the United States, our freedom, our people, and our way of life, and expanding NATO, I believe, would not do that,’ Hawley said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote. ‘What I am arguing for is the return to a classic nationalist approach to foreign policy … grounded in our nation’s interests and in the reality of the world as it is, not as we wish it was.’
Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton took a veiled shot at Hawley on the Senate floor earlier Wednesday.
‘How could one disagree?’ Cotton asked on the Senate floor of Sweden and Finland’s addition. ‘After all, the last countries to join NATO — Montenegro and North Macedonia — were each approved by the Senate with only two ‘no’ votes.
‘It would be strange indeed for any senator who voted to allow Montenegro or North Macedonia into NATO to turn around and deny membership to Finland and Sweden,’ he remarked.
‘I would love to hear the defense of such a curious vote,’ Cotton said with palpable sarcasm.
Hawley voted for Montenegro and North Macedonia’s addition to the alliance in 2019.
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