Finland and Sweden are among the world’s most robust democracies. The greatest threat to freedom in Europe today is Russia, which has invaded neighboring democracies like Ukraine and Georgia and made efforts to undermine democracy across the Continent. Given their proximity to this threat, Finland and Sweden clearly understand this.

Their perspectives are especially important as the alliance is revising its strategy and debating whether and how to privilege collective defense relative to its other two core tasks—cooperative security and crisis management. It’s also important given debates over where NATO should focus its efforts between the multi-faceted Russian threat on the one hand and the challenges posed by terrorists and nonstate actors on the other. Finnish and Swedish membership in the alliance should strengthen NATO’s determination to prioritize the Russian threat. This will likely be welcomed by Washington, given its focus on strategic competition with Russia (and China).

When it comes to burden-sharing, Finland and Sweden have already proved themselves up to the task. If they join the alliance, it will mark the first time since Spain’s 1986 accession that NATO will expand to countries that likely will be net contributors to security. Both countries decided to increase defense spending recently, despite the challenges created by the pandemic-induced recession.