On the same day NATO formally invited Finland and Sweden to join the alliance, President Joe Biden promised to maintain the United States’ recently-increased military presence in Europe for the “foreseeable future.” Both moves are seen as steps to bolster their respective defense capacities in Europe amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
“I think the first lesson really from today is that if Vladimir Putin was hoping that he would be getting less NATO on his Western front as a result of his unprovoked, illegal invasion of Ukraine, he’s been proved completely wrong,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday. “He’s getting more NATO.”
President Biden’s commitments to Europe include the basing of a U.S. military garrison in Poland. The base would mark America’s first permanent military presence in the country. Biden also said the U.S. is sending two additional F-35 fighter jet squadrons to the U.K. and more air defenses and other capabilities to Germany and Italy.
“In a moment when Putin has shattered peace in Europe and attacked the very, very tenets of the rules-based order, the United States and our Allies — we’re going to step up,” Biden said at a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “We’re proving that NATO is more needed now than it ever has been and it’s as important as it has ever been.”
As Biden hopes the increase in military presence in Europe improves the continent’s security, so does NATO with its invitations to Finland and Sweden. The invitations came a day after Turkey dropped its objection to them.
“Today is an historic day for Sweden and for the Swedish people,” Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Anderson said Wednesday.
Finish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto added, “We are very happy that we could do this together with Sweden because one of our concerns from Finland was that if our processes will be separated that’s actually weakening our security because we have a situation that Finland and Sweden and have been cooperating on security and defense for a long time.”
