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The United States says it is convinced that it will be able to allay the security concerns of Finland and Sweden if they decide to join NATO. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki did not say how the United States wants to do this. Sweden already said yesterday that America had given security guarantees to the country, without giving further details.

Finland and Sweden are expected to apply for NATO membership this month. Once they are members, Article 5 of the NATO Charter becomes a member as well. This means that an attack on one Member State is understood as an attack on all Member States. Article 5 therefore has a deterrent effect on countries that might want to invade a NATO member state.

However, there is a period between applying for NATO membership and actual membership. All NATO member states must ratify the candidacy of a new member state. In the meantime, Article 5 does not yet apply, which makes a country potentially vulnerable. Finland and Sweden are therefore looking for ways to guarantee their security in the interim period between candidacy and accession.

NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg said yesterday that more NATO troops would be stationed along Sweden’s border if the country had applied for NATO membership. NATO will also expand its presence in the Baltic Sea at this time. According to Stoltenberg, NATO has a “strong obligation” to guarantee Sweden’s security from the moment the application is submitted.