Johnson’s security assurances to Sweden and Finland not just symbolic

Analysis: UK going further than any other Nato country, which is of high value at a time of great tension say experts

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 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.