托业

Baltic Sea Will Become ‘NATO Basin’ After Nordic Nations’ Accession to Alliance, Polish Prez Says_我的网站

进击的巨人

A | The Baltic Sea will become an “internal basin” of the NATO bloc after Finland and Sweden join the alliance, with every country bordering the sea barring Russia and its exclave of Kaliningrad to be part of the alliance, Polish President Andrzej Duda has boasted.,“The Baltic sea is essentially poised to become NATO’s internal basin. Two very powerful nations with a long and strong military tradition will become part of NATO soon, extending the Russia-NATO border by 1,400 kilometers, which is no doubt bad news for Russian authorities,” Duda said during a meeting of Poland’s security council on Monday.,Expressing hope that Finland and Sweden are accepted quickly and that their membership is ratified by NATO’s 30 members, Duda stressed that there was “no need for an explanation on how important this decision is for us.”,Late last week, Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko called the push to incorporate the pair of Nordic countries into the Western alliance “one of the saddest episodes in the evolution” of Europe’s security architecture, and warned that Moscow will be forced to beef up its defenses to compensate for new threats.,“This will severely worsen the military situation in the Baltic Sea region, which, as a result of NATO’s expansion…would be turned into an arena if not of military confrontation, then completely unnecessary military rivalry,” Grushko said.,Russian President Vladimir Putin warned last Wednesday that although Moscow does not have the same type of “problems with Sweden and Finland” as it does with Ukraine, the two countries “should plainly and clearly realize that [while] there were no threats before, now, if military contingents and infrastructure are deployed there, [Russia] will have to respond in a mirror fashion.”,Mayor of Finland's Border Town Mulls Placing NATO Base Directly on Russia's Doorstep3 July, 12:48 GMT,Finland and Sweden completed accession talks at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday, with the bloc indicating in a statement that “both countries formally confirmed their willingness and ability to meet the political, legal and military obligations and commitments of NATO membership.” Allies are due to sign accession protocols on Tuesday, after which they will go out to all 30 member countries for ratification.,The pair of Nordic nations broke with generations of neutrality by announcing their bids for NATO membership this spring after Russia began its military operation in Ukraine. Until now, Sweden had maintained strict bloc neutrality since the 19th century, and has not taken part in any large-scale war in Europe since 1814. Finland became neutral at the start of the Cold War, and continued this policy for decades after 1991.,Swedish PM Refuses to Say if Stockholm Will Deport Kurds Wanted in Turkey as Part of NATO DealYesterday, 11:38 GMT,The countries’ neutrality did not prevent them from leaning in NATO’s direction after the collapse of the USSR and the Eastern bloc. They joined the Western alliance’s ‘Partnership for Peace’ program in 1994, and took part in the US-led occupation of Afghanistan, as well as 'peacekeeping' operations in the Serbian breakaway region of Kosovo after 1999. Both countries’ armies, navies and air forces also regularly take part in NATO-led military exercises in the region.,The planned incorporation of Finland and Sweden into NATO is the latest round of the bloc’s eastward push. Since 1990 and Secretary of State James Baker’s famous “not one inch east” promise to Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, the Western bloc has undergone three major waves of eastward expansion, swallowing up the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland in 1999, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Baltic states in 2004, and Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia between 2009 and 2020. After Finland and Sweden’s accession, there will be just nine countries in Europe, Russia included, that are not part of the US-led North Atlantic alliance.,German Lawmaker Reveals How NATO Fooled Gorbachev About Bloc’s Eastward Expansion Plans31 January 2020, 16:43 GMT。

译者注：本文原发表自Fansided，作者是Will Eudy，文中数据均截至原文发稿前（当地时间4月20日），文中观点与译者及平台无关。

费城76人队的球迷是NBA中最难取悦的球迷群体之一，而一个令人沮丧的赛季只会让他们有更充分的理由不听从保持冷静的劝告，尤其是在休赛期的讨论背景下。

浏览以76人队为主题的社交媒体页面，你会被球迷的大量声讨淹没，这些球迷已经对球队年复一年令人失望的成绩感到厌倦。