Boris Johnson’s
offer of British written security assurances to Sweden and Finland was more than a piece of symbolism designed to nudge the two countries over the line into making a joint application for Nato next week, Swedish security experts said.
Although Johnson’s key guarantee is necessarily a political declaration, as opposed to an international treaty guarantee, the British commitment was of high value at a time of great tension, Anna Wieslander, the Atlantic Council’s northern
Europe director said on Wednesday.
Johnson’s visits were designed to reassure the populations of both countries that in practical military defence terms key Nato countries, if not Nato collectively, are committed bilaterally to the Nordic countries’ defence if subject to attack or sustained Russian intimidation.