Danllan
Member
- Location
- Sir Gar / Carms
By a very odd coincidence, earlier today I met I fellow I was at school with and haven't seen for nearly thirty years. He is Swede married to a Brit and, after spending most of the last couple of decades in Sweden, they have decided to move, of all places to Pembrokeshire - I know, I know, but there's no accounting for taste...
Anyway, we had a pretty good chat and at one point the subject of Mr Putin and his demands / threats to NATO and against his neighbours came up. Now, a thing that has always seemed a given to me is Swedish military neutrality; but, according to my chum, there are a growing number of people in Sweden - maybe even a majority already - who think that joining NATO may not just be a good idea, but a necessity.
Well, that was news to me, but I've just being doing a bit of research and he wasn't kidding. He did national service, and despite stopping it in 2010, the Swedes re-started it a few years ago, and apparently it isn't an unpopular thing with the Swedish public as a whole - no idea what those conscripted have to say. Anyway, surprising though I find it, Sweden joining NATO now seems a realistic possibility in the not too distant future, several leading politicians there, including their PM, have said it may happen. I've no reason to believe Swedish politicos are any different to others in terms of moral courage, so they may be testing the water and thinking about going ahead if there isn't a public backlash.
And, perhaps a little less surprisingly bearing in mind their location, the same sort of noises are coming from Finland. If Finland were to join, it would give Russia another 700 miles / 1100km of border with NATO. If...
When China tried to bully Australia, Xi scored a huge own goal by alienating and driving the Aussies away from China and much, much closer to the US, UK etc.. I wonder if Vlad's warnings and demands that no countries East of the current NATO members should be allowed to join it, will have a similar effect and actually push them into doing what he really doesn't want... thoughts?
Anyway, we had a pretty good chat and at one point the subject of Mr Putin and his demands / threats to NATO and against his neighbours came up. Now, a thing that has always seemed a given to me is Swedish military neutrality; but, according to my chum, there are a growing number of people in Sweden - maybe even a majority already - who think that joining NATO may not just be a good idea, but a necessity.
Well, that was news to me, but I've just being doing a bit of research and he wasn't kidding. He did national service, and despite stopping it in 2010, the Swedes re-started it a few years ago, and apparently it isn't an unpopular thing with the Swedish public as a whole - no idea what those conscripted have to say. Anyway, surprising though I find it, Sweden joining NATO now seems a realistic possibility in the not too distant future, several leading politicians there, including their PM, have said it may happen. I've no reason to believe Swedish politicos are any different to others in terms of moral courage, so they may be testing the water and thinking about going ahead if there isn't a public backlash.
And, perhaps a little less surprisingly bearing in mind their location, the same sort of noises are coming from Finland. If Finland were to join, it would give Russia another 700 miles / 1100km of border with NATO. If...
When China tried to bully Australia, Xi scored a huge own goal by alienating and driving the Aussies away from China and much, much closer to the US, UK etc.. I wonder if Vlad's warnings and demands that no countries East of the current NATO members should be allowed to join it, will have a similar effect and actually push them into doing what he really doesn't want... thoughts?