A NATO country committed to preventing Sweden and Finland from joining

The reason why Croatia prevented it Finland and Sweden

On April 26, President Croatia Zoran Milanovic said that Finland and Sweden joining NATO is a very dangerous move and can provoke Russia. Milanovic added that Croatia will refuse to ratify their membership until the US and EU pressure neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina to guarantee the basic voting rights of ethnic Croats.

RT quoted President Milanovic as telling reporters in Zagreb on April 26: “As far as I’m concerned, they might join NATO, that could provoke agitation. Russia. However, until the question of electoral law in Bosnia-Herzegovina is resolved, until the Americans, the British, the Germans – if they can and want to – force Bosnia-Herzegovina to update the electoral law in six months come and grant Croatians their basic rights, the Croatian Parliament will not ratify any country’s accession to NATO,” he added.

President Milanovic pointed out that NATO cannot admit new members without the approval of existing members, adding that he considers Croatia’s role at the moment “a silver bullet”. history”.

“Let the president or the secretary of state America listen to this now. Let’s see what they can do for Croatia. If the US and its Western European allies want the two Scandinavian countries to join NATO, they will have to listen to Croatia,” he stressed.

Croatia’s biggest claim is the current electoral system in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina, whose ethnic Croatian community is recognized as equal under the 1995 constitution that ended the civil war. Zagreb insisted on updating the electoral law so that Bosnian Croats could elect their own representatives, as opposed to the current practice of having them elected by the much larger Bosnian Muslim community.

In addition to Bosnia, President Milanovic listed several other Croatian grievances: the EU’s refusal to admit Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen free movement treaty, lack of recognition of the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo, and no progress in EU talks with Albania and North Macedonia – which even changed its name recently to avoid objections from Greece, to no avail.

Croatia became a NATO member in 2009 and joined EU in 2013, when Mr. Milanovic was prime minister. Social Democratic Party politician who has been president since October 2020. However, it is unclear whether his threat to veto NATO expansion will actually materialize, as the nationalist HDZ party holds a majority in parliament.

Sweden, Finland’s plan and Russia’s response

Sweden and FinlandBoth countries, which have long maintained neutral positions, have both applied to join NATO in recent weeks, citing the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Iltalehti in Finland and Expressen in Sweden reported on April 25 that the two countries will jointly express their desire to join NATO in May. According to the newspaper, the leaders of Finland and Sweden are expected to meet in the week from May 16 and then publicize their plans to apply to join the union.

While, Russia warns Finland and Sweden should not join NATO, arguing that it would not bring stability to Europe.

“We have repeatedly said that NATO remains an instrument for confrontation and that its further expansion will not bring stability to the European continent,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Newsweek. Peskov told reporters at a press conference on April 11 when asked about the possibility of Finland and Sweden joining NATO.

Earlier, on April 4, Peskov shared that, if Finland and Sweden join NATO, then Russia will have to “rebalance the situation” with its own measures, such as strengthening its western flank. to ensure security. However, he said, Russia would not consider such a move an existential threat, which could lead it to consider using nuclear weapons.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the military alliance would quickly welcome Finland and Sweden to join if they decided to apply. NATO’s top civilian official said the bloc may be ready to provide security guarantees to the Nordic countries if their intention to join NATO puts them under threat.