Truss: Global Nato key to reinforcing alliance
LIZ Truss has called for Nato to expand around the globe to counter the threat from the likes of Russia and China.
As well as protecting Euro-Atlantic security, the Foreign Secretary said the West must “watch out” for dangers in the Indo-Pacific region.
Moscow and Beijing have opposed the alliance’s expansion, calling it a weakening of global security.
Ms Truss’s remarks came as Finland confirmed it will apply to join Nato while Sweden’s ruling Social Democrats yesterday officially backed the idea of their country joining the organisation.
Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto said Nato membership would “maximise” his country’s security following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A formal membership application is expected to be submitted to Nato headquarters in Brussels next week.
Meanwhile, Swedish PM Magdalena Andersson is expected to launch her country’s application to join the 30-member military alliance within days.
An expansion of Nato would be a blow to Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, who stated a bid to thwart its easterly advance as one of the reasons for invading Ukraine.
Countries within the alliance are required to defend each other if any one of them is attacked. Speaking at a meeting of Nato foreign ministers, including Antony Blinken, of the United States, in Berlin yesterday, Ms Truss said “there was strong support” for a “more global Nato”.
She added: “We agreed we must continue to help Ukraine win and push Russia out.
“Putin must face a sustained defeat in Ukraine, Russia must be contained and such aggression must never happen again. “Nato’s open-door policy is essential and if Finland and Sweden decide to apply to join it is clear that they would strengthen the alliance and European security as a whole.”
Turkey has raised objections to the two northern European countries’ potential requests, saying both of them are “openly supporting and engaging” with the outlawed Kurdish militant group PKK and “terrorist organisation” YPG. However, Nato’s deputysecretary general Mircea Geoana said he was “confident” that the alliance will be able to address Turkey’s concerns and welcome all the countries to find “conditions for consensus to be met”.