BEIJING, May 17. /TASS/. The entry of Finland and Sweden to NATO will exacerbate the confrontation between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Russia in the Baltic region, Cui Shoujun, a professor at the School of International Studies of Renmin University of China, told TASS on Tuesday.
"The infusion of military power and capacity of the military-industrial complex of the Nordic countries will significantly strengthen NATO forces in the Baltic Sea and in Europe as a whole, which will lead to an exacerbation of the geopolitical confrontation between NATO and Russia," he said.
He said the crisis in Ukraine "strengthened the recognition by NATO member states of the principle of collective security, which brought the alliance closer together and strengthened its sense of its own importance."
"NATO got out of the state of ‘brain death,’" the analyst said, referring to the verdict given to the bloc by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2019. The alliance "became active again," the analyst said.
The discussion about Finland's accession to NATO intensified in early April. The majority of parliament members spoke in favor of the country joining the alliance. On May 15, the Finnish president announced that Finland would apply for NATO membership. On May 16, the Swedish government also decided that the country would apply for membership in the alliance.