Finland, Sweden did not anticipate the consequences of joining NATO?

Helsinki and Stockholm are looking to join a “failed organization,” Dr. Jan Oberg, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and Director of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Studies, told RT. .

Becoming a member NATO won’t make Finland and Sweden safer, but could make them fight other people’s wars and host US bases, says Dr. Oberg.

“It’s a disastrous decision,” Dr Oberg said on May 15, after the Finnish government’s official announcement that it would apply to join the US-led NATO military bloc. Hours later, Sweden’s ruling party made a similar announcement.

The two Nordic countries stayed out of NATO during the Cold War, but their governments say Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine became a game changer, leading them to decide to seek NATO membership.

Dr Oberg added that Finland and Sweden had failed to conduct a “long-term consequence analysis”. “Nobody seems to be asking if joining NATO is the right thing to do. Since 1945, NATO has proven that it cannot provide stability, peace and security for what taxpayers pay… But then Finland and Sweden say: We will join the organization. this failed institution,” commented Mr. Oberg.

“We have to ask ourselves: Who caused the conflict between Russia and Ukraine? Everyone talks about the Russian attack – which I also regret – but basically this conflict is related to NATO expansion,” the peace researcher said.

Moscow cites one of the main reasons for its military campaign to be to ensure that Ukraine never becomes a NATO member.

Oberg said he understands Moscow’s concerns about NATO’s expansion to its borders Russia. “If I sat in Moscow, I would feel this is a threat,” Oberg commented, referring to possible membership of Finland and Sweden.

“When you move troops close to the border on both sides, you increase tension; you reduce reaction time; you do all the things you shouldn’t do if peace is your goal. Peace is not the goal of these people,” Oberg said.

Military-industrial corporations – “who sell weapons and profit from war” – will benefit from NATO’s two new members, Oberg said. The people of Sweden and the people of Finland will not benefit from this. It will be completely new to them that now they have to join… in other people’s wars.

With the work America promoting bases in Denmark and Norway, “do we believe there will be no American bases or American troops or something more permanent in Sweden and Finland?” asked Mr. Oberg.

The peace researcher added that NATO membership would also “open up to these countries the possibility of denuclearization that should never have been realized in this particular region.”

Dr Oberg said it was “appalling” that the governments in Helsinki and Stockholm did not bring the issue to referendums. “This has never happened with a decision as important as joining NATO.”

While opinion polls show overwhelming support for NATO membership in Finland, in Sweden the idea is supported by less than 50% of the public. “I was surprised that there was so little public discussion, while no one noticed the massive protests in major cities in the United States. Switzerland“- said the scholar.

He blamed the media, of which “80% to 90% are pro-NATO”, for the situation. “Today it is very difficult to approach the media with a different perspective… There is no democracy and no free media in this,” emphasized Mr. Oberg.