Finland and Sweden move closer to joining NATO

[hnarn]

WP is reporting that "Finland will release an official assessment Wednesday of how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has changed its security environment, beginning a process that is expected to culminate in a request to join NATO."[1]

Prime ministers of both Sweden and Finland are holding a joint press conference starting in a few minutes at the time of this writing, just a few hours before Finland's official assessment.[2]

Swedish media is currently buzzing with unconfirmed statements about plans of joining in June of this year at the NATO meeting in Madrid,[3] as well as a previous prime minister of Sweden stating that if Finland joins, Sweden's "main argument" against joining will fall.[4]

Public opinion around one week after the invasion showed that the "No" demographic in Sweden had shrunk from 40% to 27%.[5]

[1]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/13/nato-finland-sweden/

[2]: https://omni.se/1210-andersson-och-marin-om-natofragan/a/ALwb9r

[3]: https://omni.se/uppgifter-andersson-vill-att-sverige-gar-med-i-nato-i-juni/a/ALwbMq

[4]: https://www.dn.se/sverige/bildt-om-finland-gar-med-i-nato-faller-sveriges-tyngsta-motargument/

[5]: https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/nastan-halften-av-svenskarna-vill-ga-med-i-nato

[bjourne]

Russia isn't more belligerent now than the Soviet Union was during the invasion of Afghanistan. This feels like a mass hysteria. Seven weeks ago there was NO support for joining NATO. Decisions that will have security implications for decades to come shouldn't be taken this lightly or quickly. Also what is forgotten is that SE and FI needs to increase their military expenditures to join NATO. That's $$$ for some people.

[nradov → bjourne]

Sweden has already increased military spending as a percentage of GDP and will continue to do so regardless of whether or not they join NATO.

https://www.voanews.com/a/swedish-pm-seeks-increased-militar...

[hdfgh435]

The northmen are smart, they'll know how to play this thing out of trouble for them - by joining or not -, while they get heavyly armed and ready for what's next.

As hard as the ukraine guys/gals are, they initially lacked the readiness for a big war you can find now in Finland and Sweden right now. So the Z guys could find an even harder welcome party, if they care to step in through their borders.

You know these guys have been regularly waging wars since before the stone age, they quite know how to fight wars. Even new kinds as this one ongoing.

[incomingpain]

Please ignore this post. I'm not allowed to have an opinion.

[tmerse → incomingpain]

..Account created 20 days ago with a comment history that feels somewhat tendentious to me. Anyhow:

> You know who really wants them to join NATO and poke the russian bear? The USA. It seems to me the USA wants war with Russia but wants to be seen as defenders.

Or maybe they are acting in their best self-interest looking at current and past affairs?

[incomingpain → tmerse]

>..Account created 20 days ago with a comment history that feels somewhat tendentious to me. Anyhow:

What shall my punishment be?

[tmerse → incomingpain]

Write sth. about programming and you shall be forgiven

[incomingpain → tmerse]

>Write sth. about programming and you shall be forgiven

Have you noticed how HN is dramatically less about tech lately?

What is it right now? Loaves of bread? Hikaru/Chess? Virtually every programming topic is some 'i produced a new programming language that nobody needs'

Tons of politics, but that is what is specifically hacker news right now. That we are in the center of a cyber world war that just went hot. What country doesnt have a cyber army? Which country hasn't suddenly invested big into cyber security and semiconductors?

In a draft blog I laid out the case for this cyber world war.

Incidentally my work blog currently being written(to be published in a month or 2 because of backlog) is about me analyzing the public/free threatfeeds in the same way. My discoveries are shocking. Talos' public threatfeed says world war.

I did all this in python :)

[giantg2 → incomingpain]

I think I mostly agree. There's really no need to join NATO. I feel like the positioning against Russia needs to thinking a little more long term.

For example, the sanctions are necessary short term, but I hope they can be lifted in the future. If we damage long term trade by creating new supply chains and sources that exclude Russia from the global market place even after the war is over and leadership changes, then we may have backed them into a corner, creating an almost inevitable conflict.