US-Nordic Summit Pushes NATO Agenda of Containing Russia in the North

US President Joe Biden and leaders from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland met on Thursday in Helsinki for the third US-Nordic Leaders' Summit following Turkiye's nod to Stockholm's membership in NATO.

"The summit in Helsinki is intended to once again demonstrate the transatlantic unity of the US and the Nordic countries," Nikita Lipunov, an analyst at the Institute for International Studies, MGIMO-University, told Sputnik.

"One of its main topics was defense cooperation: in the near future, the United States will demonstrate strength and increase its military presence in Northern Europe. Nevertheless, neither Helsinki, nor Brussels, nor Washington are interested in a direct clash with Russia."

The readout of the US-Nordic Leaders' summit, released on the White House's website on Thursday placed particular emphasis on the Ukraine conflict, pledging "to continue their [US and Nordic] support for Ukraine for as long as it takes, including through sustained security, economic, legal, and humanitarian assistance."

They also "reconfirmed the importance of [NATO] for regional and transatlantic security and stability" referring to Sweden and Finland – previously neutral states – forthcoming accession to the alliance.

The Nordic states signaled that they "stand ready to deepen their security and defense cooperation with the United States, including through the Nordic Defense Cooperation framework."

"I don’t think NATO’s ever been stronger," Biden said during a meeting with Finland's President Sauli Niinistö. "I think – it’s a different era. The nature of our relationship, bringing along Sweden as well, makes a gigantic difference."

In his previous interview with Sputnik, Lipunov drew attention to Washington's plans in the Arctic, stressing that Sweden and Finland's membership in NATO would become instrumental for the US' Arctic gambit.

For instance, Sweden's accession to the bloc will have an impact on the adjacent Barents Euro-Arctic region, where military activity and tension will increase, Lipunov noted at the time. He added that a valuable asset for NATO will be Finnish and Swedish technology in the field of communications, armaments and the construction of icebreakers.

Meanwhile, it's unclear whether Finland's NATO membership is worth the pain of cutting off ties with Russia with which it shares a 1,340 km border. What interests does Helsinki pursue in NATO?

Lipunov explained that Finland receives legal security guarantees under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. Even though Russia neither poses a threat nor challenges the Nordic country, Finnish politicians believe that this would strengthen their security.

"In addition, joining NATO for Helsinki is also a status marker of belonging to the Western community of states. By joining NATO, Finland formally confirmed the Euro-Atlantic orientation of its foreign and defense policy and for the foreseeable future abandoned good neighborly relations with its eastern neighbor," said Lipunov.

The preceding NATO Summit in Vilnius demonstrated the bloc's readiness for further expansion and perception of Nordic countries as an invaluable asset for the alliance's strategic plans.

"NATO expansion in Northern Europe is a strategic military-political task of the United States as part of its policy of constraining Russia," Lipunov said. "After the entry of Finland and the future accession of Sweden, the border of the alliance with Russia would double, and the Baltic Sea would actually become NATO's inland sea."

"Due to the close integration of the Nordic countries, including within the NORDEFCO format, and their intensive defense cooperation with other NATO members, primarily the US and Great Britain, NATO's northeastern flank has significantly strengthened, as it grows more militarily connected. Russia is already responding to new security threats: it is strengthening the grouping of troops in the North-West and recreating the Moscow and Leningrad military districts," the analyst concluded.