Snubbing Russia, NATO invites Sweden and Finland to join alliance

NATO invited Sweden and Finland on Wednesday to join the military alliance in one of the biggest shifts in European security in decades after Russia's invasion of Ukraine pushed Helsinki and Stockholm to drop their traditional of neutrality.

NATO's 30 allies took the decision at their summit in Madrid and also agreed to formally treat Russia as the "most significant and direct threat to the allies' security", according to a summit statement.

"Today, we have decided to invite Finland and Sweden to become members of NATO," NATO leaders said in their declaration, after Turkey lifted a veto on Finland and Sweden joining.

However, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Russia views plans by Sweden and Finland to join NATO "negatively", Interfax reported.

Russian state news agency RIA also quoted Ryabkov as saying that NATO expansion is "destabilising" and does not add to the security of members of the alliance. Ratification in allied parliaments is likely to take up to a year, but once it is done, Finland and Sweden will be covered by NATO's Article 5 collective defence clause, putting them under the United States' protective nuclear umbrella.

"We will make sure we are able to protect all allies, including Finland and Sweden," Stoltenberg said.

In the meantime, the allies are set to increase their troop presence in the Nordic region, holding more military exercises and naval patrols in the Baltic Sea to reassure Sweden and Finland.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan agreed with his Finnish and Swedish counterparts a series of security measures to allow the two Nordic countries to overcome the Turkish veto that Ankara imposed in May due to its concerns about terrorism.

Security beef-up

NATO leaders are set to discuss plans to overhaul and boost the alliance’s defences in the face of Russian aggression in Europe, including establishing a new force model that would put about 300,000 troops on high alert to deal with any future threats.

Meanwhile, the Russian ruble rallied past 52 against the U.S. dollar and hit a more than seven-year high on Tuesday as Russia's capital controls and month-end taxes offset the negative impact of Western statement that the country has defaulted on its international bonds.

The ruble became the world's best-performing currency in 2022, boosted by Russia's emergency measures that have been taken to shield the country's financial system from Western sanctions after the Ukraine conflict began on February 24.

The ruble hit 50.6125 against the dollar in Moscow trade for the first time since late May 2015.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was founded in 1949 to defend against the Soviet threat. Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine gave the organisation a new impetus after failures in Afghanistan and internal discord during the era of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

"We are sending a strong message to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin: 'you will not win'," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a speech.

Allies also agreed on NATO's first new strategic concept - its master planning document - in a decade. Russia, previously classed as a strategic partner of NATO, is now identified as NATO's main threat.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is "a direct threat to our Western way of life," Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo added, citing the wider impact of the war, such as rising energy and food prices.

The planning document also cited China as a challenge for the first time, setting the stage for the 30 allies to plan to handle Beijing's transformation from a benign trading partner to a fast-growing competitor from the Arctic to cyberspace.

Unlike Russia, whose war in Ukraine has raised serious concerns in the Baltics of an attack on NATO territory, China is not an adversary, NATO leaders said. But Stoltenberg has repeatedly called on Beijing to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow says is a "special operation".