The Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas, approved this Wednesday by a large majority the ratification of Sweden and Finland as candidates for NATO membership, ending the process of the Baltic countries.
The vote ended with 112 MEPs voting in favor of Sweden’s entry, which received only one vote against, while Finland received the support of 111 MEPs.
With this vote, parliamentary ratification of the Baltic country completed to the request to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), formalized in July, by the two Nordic countries, hitherto members of the Atlantic Alliance, but not full members of the organization.
Finland and Sweden closer to NATO. With signed accession protocols, countries obtain “guest status”
The vote was held in the presence of the ambassadors of Sweden and Finland and was greeted with applause from all the deputies present at the Seimas.
The ratification by Lithuania follows the vote, on July 6, of the Estonian parliament, which also overwhelmingly approved the accession of the two Nordic countries, having been one of the first, among the 30 members of NATO, in doing it.
The Latvian parliament also ratified the entry of the two Nordic countries in an extraordinary session held on July 14.
The three Baltic countries supported from the beginning Swedish and Finnish aspirations to join NATO, precipitated by Russian aggression against Ukraine and after years of military neutrality by these two Nordic partners in the European Union.
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia consider that the incorporation of these countries will strengthen regional securityespecially as regards the so-called Suwalki corridor, which runs along the Lithuanian and Polish borders and connects the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad with Belarus.
Poland and Lithuania express confidence in NATO troops over Suwalki Gorge
This corridor forms the only channel of communication that can provide eventual reinforcements to NATO to protect the Baltic countries if the need arises, but the Russians could easily cut it off.
The entry of Sweden and Finland will allow the Atlantic Alliance to have alternative maritime and air corridors to support the Baltic countries.
Finland and Sweden formally maintained their military neutrality during the Cold War and after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine precipitated a shift both in public opinion and in the parliamentary spectrum of the two Nordic countries.
Source: Observadora
