With Finland joining the 30-member North Atlantic Organization (NATO), which is a post-World War II alliance of nations opposed to the Warsaw Pact countries led by the collapsed Soviet Union, the power equations throughout Asia and the world have changed dramatically. This will impact India because China has shown its belligerence by renaming 11 districts in Arunachal Pradesh which it illegally claims as being part of south Tibet. And with Russia and China backing each other in their military adventurism, India has a lot of worrying to do.
Finland is a small Nordic country which shares a 1,330 kilometre border with Russia, thereby dramatically increasing NATO’s border with the latter. Like India, Finland adopted a policy of non-alignment with the two power blocs led by the U.S.A and the former USSR. This non-alignment was known as “Findlandisation” which was put in place after World War II when the former USSR invaded Finland to keep Leningrad (now St Petersburg) which was very close to the Finnish border.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, the small satellite countries craved NATO protection because under its charter, every member-nation has to defend other alliance members who are attacked. Finland and its neighbor, Sweden, applied for NATO membership soon after Russia invaded Ukraine. But Turkey and Hungary opposed Sweden’s membership culminating in Finland becoming NATO’s 31st member. All member-nations must unanimously approve the application of any nation seeking to join this military alliance.
To avoid war with its giant neighbor, the former USSR, tiny Finland refused to join NATO although it was Europe’s gateway to the East. It did not want to lose trade and tourist revenue it earned from Russia after the collapse of the USSR. Tiny though it may be, Finland, like Israel, has compulsory military conscription and spends 2 per cent of its GDP on its military, meeting NATO rules, and widening NATO borders with belligerent Russia.
Tiny Finland inflicted damage on the former USSR during World War II but was forced to cede some of its territories to the Soviet Union. Finland’s joining NATO has brought in a military trained to repel a Russian attack with sophisticated NATO missile launch pads stationed on its soil targeting Moscow, raising the spectre of China assisting a beleaguered Russia which has the seeds of World War III.
Russia has issued a statement that Finland has committed a dangerous historical mistake bringing NATO close to its borders which was one among the reasons it (Russia) gave for invading Ukraine before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing during the Olympics and Xi Jinping’s reciprocal visit to Moscow between March 21 and 23. Both China and Russia dominate the U.N. Security Council where they are permanent members.
If Prime Minister Narendra Modi is banking on Russian support for India against China in its gobbling up of large tracts of Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh, he better forget it. Russia and China have formed a new military axis like the Germany-Italy-Japan axis during World War II. China believes the U.S.A and its NATO allies want to contain it. Xi Jinping told Vladimir Putin while leaving Russia that their military alliance will change power equations throughout Asia and the world in a way not witnessed for over 100 years. So, Modi’s national security advisor focusing on critical NGOs within India as India’s greatest enemy rather than a belligerent China which has killed our brave jawans makes sense. If you cannot beat them, forget them by silencing critics as being anti-national.
The NATO alliance was set up in 1949 soon after World War II to contain the USSR and its communist allies. NATO’s founding members were Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Canada, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the USA. Greece and Turkey joined in 1952, Germany in 1955, Sain in 1982, Czechia, Hungary and Poland in 1999, Bulgaria, Estonia Latvia Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia in 2004, Albania and Croatia in 2009 Montenegro in 2017 North Macedonia in 2020 and Finland in 2023.
Now, whether we agree or not, China and Russia have reduced the UN Security Council to their private fiefdom with their veto powers which are mutually beneficial. Now, with their joint statement issued on February 4, 2022 declaring a “no-limits partnership” and “no forbidden areas of cooperation” which presumably include a formidable military alliance against NATO, India has been plunged into a security quagmire. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pontificating that the era of wars has elapsed needs rethinking unless we are ready to sacrifice Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Kashmir and finally our sovereignty.
