Finland and Sweden this week formally applied to join Nato after years of non-alignment. Jon Henley reports on how the Ukraine war has given the alliance a new lease of life
For decades, Sweden and Finland have held back from joining other western nations in the Nato military alliance. For Sweden, it would have compromised its longstanding neutrality. For Finland, it was a more pragmatic matter of not appearing to antagonise Russia, with which it shares an 810-mile border and against which it fought brutal 20th-century wars.Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed everything.
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