Finland's leadership is calling for immediate membership in NATO "without delay" following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ari Aramesh, a national security and foreign policy analyst, joined Cheddar News to discuss Finland's change of direction after avoiding membership in the military alliance for decades. "Finland's current security needs and Finland's current security measures are all about what Putin and what Putin's Kremlin are out to achieve, and that has been been a much more aggressive, much more sort of militant Kremlin, under President Putin in the past 22 years," he said. 

Cheddar's News Wrap

Behind Push by Finland to Quickly Join NATO in Light of Russia-Ukraine War

let's switch gears to our next guest, a major shakeup in europe's security landscape appears to be near after leaders of Finland announced today. It wants to join NATO. Finland's President and Prime Minister said in a joint statement, quote, NATO membership would strengthen Finland security as a member of NATO. Finland would strengthen the entire defense alliance. Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay. Finland has been neutral since World War two but public opinion shifted dramatically in favor of NATO membership after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Joining me now to discuss is Ari RMS national Security and foreign policy analyst, Ari welcome to the show. Finland shares a massive land border with Russia that is over 800 miles long for our viewers. That might not know it has avoided any military alliance for decades now. So how big of a deal is today's announcement? Good to be with you Hannah, it's a big deal. Um Finland and Finland's neighbor Sweden had remained neutral for most of their history. Finland has had a rough patch where it's their share of skirmishes with the Russian federation and then the soviet union. And Finland is actually one of the very few countries in europe that not only shares borders with the Russian federation but also fought the Russians in a war. So uh some of these feuds go back sometime to some time ago, but Finland's current security Needs and Finland's current security measures are all about what Putin and what Putin's Kremlin are out to achieve. And that has been been a much more aggressive, much more sort of militant Kremlin under President Putin in the past 22 years. So yes Finland has asked to join NATO has asked to do this on emergency basis on a sort of expert expedited path. Uh and what's very interesting is you have to become a member for Article five. That means an attack on one means an attack on all for Article 5 to be effective. And now we're hearing that during the actual sort of processing Finland's application to become a full fledged NATO member, even when that application is being processed, NATO is going to consider Finland and Article five allies. So in an attack on Finland, while it's pending membership for NATO will be an attack on all NATO members. And that's not something the all omnipotent Vladimir Putin would have wanted you to hear today, yesterday or five years ago. Let's talk about that. Russia has immediately responded saying they will retaliate why this reaction. And what can they do between now and when? Finland if and when Finland becomes a NATO ally? Well, Russia can always attack. The question is consequences and costs. We saw a non NATO country, Ukraine a country that was part of the soviet union, a country that Russia for all practical purposes. I mean these guys if they don't have the maps, I mean, I'm sorry, they didn't draw the maps they have the maps, I mean that Russian military is very familiar with Ukrainian territory. And and Ukraine for that matter yet. They've had such a hard time getting bogged down in Ukraine for a number of reasons. Now, Finland and Sweden, they also have professional militaries. It's not like Finland is is not is not suffering from a third rate military sort of establishment. Know Finland has a great top notch military. So that Sweden, yes, they are much smaller in terms of numbers compared to Russia, but they are capable of defending themselves. So first and foremost, we saw we really overestimated Russian capabilities, the officer corps and the non existent N. C. O. That's the noncommissioned officers score. That's what we have in the U. S. That makes our military so great. The professional sort of the sergeant's. Uh they just don't have that in the Russian military. Secondly, um we we realized that Putin doesn't really understand much else but force, when you front him and when you confront him with brute force, it's when he decides to cut his losses or pull back or at least try to take different measures. We saw in Ukraine that months and months and months of trying to placate him, really didn't work. It's now that President biden is arming the Ukrainians, not only with javelins and end laws from Britain, but also with as many how it's around as they need. Now, we see some significant losses on the Russian side and perhaps a realization that the battle for Kiev is completely lost. Forget about the west in the center there now, refocusing on the east end, they're hearing bad news from the Eastern front, I do want to talk about that because NATO already says it welcomes Finland but has rejected Ukraine's bid several times. Why? So there were major differences between Ukraine and Finland. I'll go over those now. I'm not going going to get into whether it was right or wrong at the time, uh to reject Ukraine's bid to join NATO. But first and foremost, Finland has a history of of being a Western democratic country. Democracy didn't just start in Finland five years ago or 10 years ago or since the collapse of the soviet Union defense have been a prosperous, prosperous democratic country for for a long time. Secondly, yes, while Finland has had a policy of neutrality, it's always been a western key Western ally. Helsinki and Stockholm have always been locked locked up with Washington and and and and London. So it's no surprise to see, you know, both Stockholm and Helsinki joining the ranks of other NATO countries, but again, in terms of Ukraine, Ukraine not only has a different history vis a vis Russia, but also has a different political climate, has a different corruption climate, has a different fiscal and economic set of conditions that made it different for Ukraine to join NATO. But it wasn't a question of if the question was when Finland and Sweden are actually going to demand or apply joining NATO and it's come now. but again, very quickly, those of us, not mine, not myself, but a lot of people, those analysts who gave so much credit to Putin for being this fierce, Calculating, meticulous strategist. While Mr. Putin has been making mistake after mistake, after mistake. And it shows that if you're in power for 22 years, you're not going to get really good advice. If your advisors are fear, are afraid of giving you the blunt truth and that's certainly playing out on the world stage. Thank you so much for your context. Here are er Romesh, national Security and foreign policy analyst. We hope you come back soon.