SUPPORTING NATO ASPIRANTS & PARTNERS
Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine has had profound consequences far beyond Ukraine. Finland and Sweden have reversed a long history of non-alignment and applied for NATO membership. NATO has stepped up its support to other NATO aspirants and partners seeking to increase their preparedness for and resilience to Russia’s destabilising actions. The Assembly has played its full part in supporting both Finland and Sweden’s accession and in complementing NATO’s support to other partners at risk.
Since Finland and Sweden’s decision to seek NATO membership, the Assembly has encouraged and monitored the ratification of their accession in Allied parliaments. The Speakers of the Finnish and Swedish Parliaments addressed the Assembly at its spring session in Vilnius, only days after the two countries formally submitted their applications.
At the time of writing, 28 Allies have ratified Finland and Sweden’s accession, in what has been the quickest accession process in recent NATO history.
Andreas Norlen Speaker of the Riksdag, Gerald E. Connolly former President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Matti Vanhanen Speaker of the Eduskunta, Vilnius, May 2022
103rd Rose-Roth Seminar, Helsinki, October 2022
“Finland and Sweden share our democratic values. Their membership of NATO will make our Alliance so much stronger”, stressed then-NATO PA President Gerald E. Connolly (United States) in his video address to the Rose-Roth seminar hosted by the Finnish parliament in Helsinki in October.
“Here in Finland, we do not only ask what NATO can do for us, but what we can do for NATO”, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö told the Helsinki seminar. Matti Vanhanen, Speaker of the Eduskunta, the Finnish Parliament, also underlined that “Finland is a security provider, not a consumer.” In addition, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson transmitted a message that “we will be able to bring value to the Alliance and increase the ability of our countries in the Nordic-Baltic region to cooperate and provide an important defence threshold.”
The Assembly’s resolution on NATO after the Madrid Summit, adopted at the annual session in November, urges Allies “to finalise as soon as possible the ratification of Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to the North Atlantic Alliance.”
The Assembly has also continued to step up its support to other aspirants and key partners. The Georgia-NATO Interparliamentary Council (GNIC) – the Assembly’s dedicated bilateral group with the Georgian Parliament – met in Brussels on the eve of Russia’s renewed invasion of Ukraine. Georgian and Allied parliamentarians were united in their firm condemnation of Russia’s threat. In June, Georgian parliamentarians and officials reaffirmed their determination to advance on the Euro-Atlantic integration path during an Assembly visit to Georgia.
Georgia-NATO Interparliamentary Council meeting, Brussels, February 2022
DSCFC visit to Georgia, June 2022
ESC and ESCTD visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, June 2022
Throughout 2022, the Assembly also kept a close watch on developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, another NATO aspirant. A visit to Sarajevo in June, in the midst of a grave political crisis, highlighted the country’s ongoing internal challenges. An Assembly delegation also observed the Bosnian general elections in October. Speaking at a press conference following the elections, then-Vice-President Mimi Kodheli (Albania) sent a strong message: “Today, the citizens of this country rightfully expect that the elected politicians will take responsibility and ownership for their country's future for the benefit of all citizens – for a safe and secure country, for reconciliation, for social and economic advances and for democratic progress.”
In his report on the impact of Russia’s war on the Western Balkans, Michal Szczerba (Poland) notes that “Russia’s vicious and unprovoked war on Ukraine now constitutes a clarifying moment for the Western Balkans. Insofar as Russia once held out a different pathway for some players in the region, that pathway now looks more like a dead end.” In contrast, he writes that “the transatlantic community of nations will have to open the door to full integration for those countries prepared to assume responsibility for undertaking the changes that will ultimately lay the foundations for peace, security, democracy and prosperity.”
Mimi Kodheli, Albania, former Vice-President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Madrid, November 2022
Michał Szczerba, NATO Parliamentary Assembly Vice-President, Rapporteur of the ESCTD, Vilnius, May 2022
Addressing the Rose-Roth seminar in Pristina in October, then-President Connolly stressed that “the Western Balkans are an area of strategic importance for all of NATO.” He added that “Western Balkan and Euro-Atlantic nations must work together towards overcoming the challenges facing the region as well as countering the destabilising influence of autocratic powers such as Russia and China.”
Ahead of NATO’s Madrid Summit, the Assembly had reaffirmed its long-standing support for NATO’s Open Door policy and for the right of all nations to define their own foreign policy course. Its contribution to NATO’s Strategic Concept made clear these principles are an expression of Allies’ shared democratic values:
Like its partnerships, NATO’s Open Door policy, enshrined in Article 10 of the Washington Treaty, is a clear expression of the Allies’ commitment to shared democratic values and the rules-based international order.
The Assembly reaffirmed its support for aspirants and partners in its resolution 479 on NATO post-Madrid summit, adopted at the annual session in November, which also urges Allies “to step up support to vulnerable partners Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and the Republic of Moldova”; “to continue supporting the Euro-Atlantic integration of Georgia and Bosnia and Herzegovina”; and “to agree on the next steps towards Ukraine’s NATO membership.”
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