How did Putin inadvertently reinvigorate NATO?
5:03
(CNN) --
Sweden and Finland are about to end decades of neutrality and join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in a historic breakthrough for the alliance that comes as a blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The last major hurdle to both nations' entry into the bloc was removed when Turkey dropped its opposition on Tuesday.
NATO formally invites Finland and Sweden to join the alliance
This breakthrough came during a NATO summit in Madrid that has already become one of the most important meetings in the history of the military alliance.
The two countries are now expected to quickly become full members of NATO, propping up the bloc's eastern flank within months of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Here's everything there is to know about why this move, what's coming next, and why it matters.
What are the most recent events?
Sweden and Finland announced their intention to join NATO in May, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine sparked a sudden change in attitude towards joining the bloc.
advertising
That announcement was welcomed by almost all NATO leaders, but there was a major hurdle.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he did not see "positively" the two countries joining NATO, accusing them of harboring Kurdish "terrorist organisations".
Under NATO rules, a single member state is enough to veto the entry of a new applicant.
However, on Tuesday there was a diplomatic breakthrough between the three countries at the NATO summit in Madrid.
Turkey signed a trilateral memorandum with Finland and Sweden, raising their opposition and officially welcoming them into the bloc.
"In NATO we have always shown that, whatever our differences, we can always sit down, find common ground and solve any problem. NATO's open door policy has been a historic success," said NATO Secretary General , Jens Stoltenberg, to journalists in Madrid.
On Wednesday, NATO formally invited Sweden and Finland to join, kicking off a multi-stage process that will end with both countries as full members.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the NATO summit in Madrid on Wednesday, where a key diplomatic breakthrough has paved the way for the accession of Sweden and Finland.
What will happen next?
Stoltenberg said Wednesday that he hopes Sweden and Finland will quickly become members of the military alliance.
The invitation begins a seven-step membership process.
Key moments on that path include the talks between NATO and the candidate countries.
The candidates must formally accept the obligations of accession, and then the current member states sign a Protocol of Accession, before individually ratifying it in their country.
"We need a ratification process in 30 parliaments, that always takes some time, but I also hope that it will go quite quickly, because the allies are willing to try to get that ratification process to happen as soon as possible," Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.
After that, the candidate country is formally invited to join the Washington Treaty, the founding document of the alliance.
NATO has an "open door" policy: any country can be invited to join if it expresses its interest, as long as it is able and willing to uphold the principles of the founding treaty of the bloc.
The ratification process usually takes about a year, from the signing of the Accession Protocol by the existing members until the country joins the Washington Treaty.
But the war in Ukraine has added an unprecedented urgency to the accession of Sweden and Finland, and the timetable could speed up as a result.
How have the leaders reacted?
US President Joe Biden hailed the move with Turkey, saying it sent a clear signal to Russia that NATO was united and growing.
Sweden and Finland's decision to "leave neutrality and the tradition of neutrality to join the NATO alliance will make us stronger and more secure and NATO stronger," Biden said.
"In my opinion, we are sending an unequivocal message ... that NATO is strong, it is united, and the steps we are taking during this summit will further increase our collective strength."
Biden said the accession of the two Nordic countries was a sign that Putin's goals had failed.
"Putin was seeking the Finnishization of Europe," he said, referring to the so-called Finnishization dynamic by which Russia dominated its smaller neighbor's foreign policy for decades.
"He's going to get Europe NATOized, and that's exactly what he didn't want, it's exactly what needs to be done to ensure the security of Europe. And I think it's necessary," Biden said.
The move was greeted with joy across NATO's eastern front, many of which have expressed concern that they could be next in Russia's crosshairs if it succeeds in Ukraine.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas called the step "significant", and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda described it as "wonderful news".
What does it mean to belong to NATO?
The reason most countries join NATO is Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which stipulates that all signatories consider an attack on one member to be an attack on all.
Article 5 has been a cornerstone of the alliance since its founding in 1949 as a counterweight to the Soviet Union.
The purpose of the treaty, and of Article 5 in particular, was to discourage the Soviets from attacking liberal democracies that lacked military strength.
Article 5 guarantees that the resources of the entire alliance, including the massive US military, can be used to protect any member nation, including smaller countries that would be defenseless without their allies.
Iceland, for example, does not have a standing army.
Former Swedish leader Carl Bildt told CNN that he did not foresee any new large military bases being built in either country if they joined.
He said joining the alliance would likely mean more joint military training and planning between Finland, Sweden and the 30 current members.
Swedish and Finnish forces could also participate in other NATO operations around the world, such as those in the Baltic states, where several bases have multinational troops.
"There are going to be contingency preparations as part of the deterrence of whatever adventures the Russians may be thinking of," Bildt said.
"The actual change is going to be pretty limited."
Why weren't Finland and Sweden already part of NATO?
While other Nordic countries such as Norway, Denmark and Iceland were original members of the alliance, Sweden and Finland did not join the pact for historical and geopolitical reasons.
Both Finland, which declared independence from Russia in 1917 following the Bolshevik revolution, and Sweden adopted neutral foreign policy stances during the Cold War, refusing to align with the Soviet Union or the United States.
Sweden's policy of neutrality dates back to the early 19th century, when the country stayed firmly out of European conflicts.
Its King Gustaf XIV formally adopted that neutral status in 1834, according to NATO, and Sweden declared a "non-belligerence" policy during World War II, allowing Nazi troops to pass through its territory as far as Finland, while accepting Jewish refugees.
Sweden chose to maintain its neutral status after the war ended.
Finland's neutrality has historically proved more difficult as it shared a long border with an authoritarian superpower.
A late-Soviet treaty known as the Friendship Agreement, signed in 1948 and extended at times over the decades, prohibited Finland from joining any military alliance deemed hostile to the USSR, or allowing a Western attack through Finnish territory.
To keep the peace, the Finns entered into an arrangement sometimes called Finnishization, in which the leaders acceded to Soviet demands from time to time.
The term was coined during the Cold War and has been applied to other countries in which a superpower exercises control over smaller neighboring states.
The juggling of both countries effectively ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Sweden and Finland joined the European Union together in 1995 and gradually aligned their defense policies with the West, while avoiding joining NATO directly.
Finnish infantry on skis fighting the Soviets during World War II.
After the war, Finland adopted a neutral stance that lasted for decades.
How the Russian invasion changed everything
Sweden and Finland have moved closer to the West on security issues since joining the European Union shortly after the end of the Cold War.
But the Russian invasion of Ukraine dramatically accelerated that process, pushing them to pull the trigger on NATO membership.
If the Kremlin was willing to invade Ukraine, a country with 44 million people, a GDP of about $516 million and a 200,000-strong military, what would stop Putin from invading smaller countries like Finland or Sweden?
"Everything changed when Russia invaded Ukraine," Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said in April.
"The mentality of the people in Finland, also in Sweden, changed and turned around in a very dramatic way."
Since the invasion of Ukraine in February, Finnish public support for NATO membership has jumped from around 30% to almost 80% in some polls.
Most Swedes also approve of their country joining the alliance, according to opinion polls in that country.
ANALYSIS |
Highlights of Sweden and Finland's application to join NATO
What was Russia's reaction?
Russia has lashed out at the decision in May by Finland and Sweden to try to join the alliance.
His deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said then that the decision would be a "mistake" with "far-reaching consequences", according to the Russian state news agency TASS.
This followed similar threats from senior Moscow officials.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said after the announcement that "NATO expansion does not make the world more stable and secure."
He added that Russia's reaction will depend on "how far and how close to our borders the military infrastructure moves."
Russia currently shares some 1,215 kilometers of land border with five NATO members, according to the alliance.
Finland's accession would mean that a nation with which Russia shares a 1,335-kilometre border would become formally aligned militarily with the United States.
The addition of Finland and Sweden would also benefit the alliance, which would frustrate Russia.
Both are serious military powers, despite their small populations.
But Putin has so far been more moderate in his rhetoric than some of his officials.
Last month he said that "Russia has no problems with these states," adding that NATO expansion "does not pose a direct threat to Russia."
"But the expansion of the military infrastructure on this territory will certainly provoke our response," he added at the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Moscow.
"We will see what it will be based on the threats that will be created for us."
What to expect from the historic NATO summit in Madrid amid Russia's war in Ukraine
Why is Russia so opposed to NATO?
Putin sees the alliance as a defense against Russia, even though he spent much of the post-Soviet era focusing on issues like terrorism and peacekeeping.
Before Putin invaded Ukraine, he made clear his belief that NATO had gotten too close to Russia and should go back to its 1990s borders, before some countries neighboring Russia or former members of the Soviet Union join the military alliance.
Ukraine's desire to join NATO and its NATO partner status, seen as a step on the road to eventual full membership, was one of numerous grievances Putin cited in an attempt to justify the invasion.
Ironically, their invasion has given the alliance a new purpose, and increased its strength.
-- CNN's Luke McGee, Nic Robertson, Paul LeBlanc, Per Bergfors Nyberg and Niamh Kennedy contributed to this report. With information from Reuters.
FinlandNATOSweden
