NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday that NATO will respond collectively if the Russian president decides to attack any member of the alliance.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that Moscow would retaliate if NATO built infrastructure in Finland and Sweden after they joined NATO. The head of the Kremlin also said that he does not exclude the aggravation of relations between his country and Helsinki and Stockholm in connection with their entry into NATO, according to Russian news agencies.
This came after the US Senate approved the entry of Sweden and Finland into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) – a move aimed at strengthening the military alliance after the start of the Russian operation in Ukraine.
If all current NATO members are approved, Finland will join Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland as NATO countries sharing a land border with Russia.
If Sweden and Finland join NATO in accordance with Article 5 of the founding treaty of the organization, any attack by Russia on any country will be considered an attack on all member states.
