Swedish Gov't Will Submit Application At June Leader Summit-SvD

Swedens Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) reporting that PM Magdalena Andersson has stated the intention that her gov't will seek NATO membership at the 29-30 June NATO leaders' summit in Madrid.

• Speaking alongside her Swedish counterpart in Stockholm, Finnish PM Sanna Marin states that the Finnish parliament will debate whether to join the NATO alliance in sessions to take place next week and that a decision will be made 'within weeks'.
• Marin says countries 'cannot have security guarantees from NATO without being members of NATO...there is a war in Europe that we wished had never happened.... what is the best way to ensure that this [war] would never happen in Finland?"
• PM Andersson states that, "We have to discuss different options and that no options are without risk," referring to the potential for NATO membership. Says that "everything changed when Russia invaded Ukraine."
• Should one or both nations join NATO it would come as a major blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin's security ambitions. Both countries have been stoically neutral for 70 years, but his invasion of Ukraine could push the nations - one which shares an 830 mile (1,340km) long border with Russia - into joining the NATO alliance, with the potential for the deployment of missiles or troops on their territory.