Bringing Finland and Sweden, which have long been neutral countries, into NATO will add capabilities and strengths to the organization that it hasn't had, retired Air Force Brigadier General Blaine Holt told Newsmax on Friday.
"Finland and Sweden have had a very strong relationship with NATO since 9/11 happened, looking after their own security interests," Holt, a former U.S. Deputy Military Representative to NATO, told Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "They've bolstered the modernization of both militaries. NATO, in assessing both of them, is getting capabilities and strength that it didn't have and an ally that includes 830 miles of the Russian border."
Holt's comments came a day after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's announcement that Hungary will ratify Finland and Sweden's NATO membership bids early next year, reports Politico.
"When it comes to NATO, the government has made the decision, and we have informed Sweden and Finland that Hungary supports the membership of these two countries in NATO," Orban said.
Other NATO members were quick to welcome Finland and Sweden's application to join the transatlantic defense alliance after Russia invaded Ukraine, but Hungary and Turkey have not yet ratified them.
Meanwhile, Finland and Sweden may be neutral, but back as far as the Cold War, the sentiment has never been warm and friendly, said Holt.
"If you recall, Finland is the only western nation to have defeated or pushed back the Russian army twice in very, very bloody conflict, ceding territory in the process, so they definitely are sympathetic to Ukrainian needs," said Holt. "On a personal note, my youngest lives in Helsinki, and a big portion of my family is Finnish as well, so I certainly can identify with the spirit of that."
Holt also discussed Russia's attacks on Ukraine's power grid, saying he believes the Russian military strategy is to turn off Ukraine's lights by the end of December.
"I think that the power grid is hanging by a thread right now," he said. "They have great engineers in Ukraine to try to put these things back together, but when you demolish them with missile barrage after missile barrage, they become more frail, and they're very much less reliable in the wintertime."
Ukraine can survive the power grid attacks, Holt said.
"We're very late to the switch-on logistics from NATO and the United States and getting proper power generation and the humanitarian supplies they're going to need," Holt said. "But what I fear is that another wave of the refugee crisis is baked into the cake. I'm not quite sure Europe's ready to handle that."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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