Illustration: Liu Rui/Global Times

After the NATO Summit in Vilnius, a US-Nordic Summit is taking place in Helsinki, Finland on Thursday. Here is, first, what I suggest the US, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland take up:

First, how to back out of NATO's conflict with Russia, stop the war and move - with the use of UN peacekeeping and mediation - toward a viable, sustainable solution to Ukraine's security problem that all parties can live with - although perhaps not be happy with.

They should look at how to re-create the Arctic as a de-militarized, low-tension region and cooperate to the benefit of all parties and the fragile environment.

Then, they should ensure that no Nordic country has any US bases - so as to not provoke Russia unnecessarily.

Given the Nordic countries' historically comparatively peaceful policies, how can the Nordic region within NATO help avoid heightened tensions and warfare with Russia - how can it be signaled most effectively that they do not seek confrontation and war?

Considering that background, how can these countries initiate an all-European dialogue, based on a series of diverse expert analyses, about a new peace and security (in that order) European system?

Last, how they can help move the world in the direction of a politically and normatively strong UN, general and complete disarmament and nuclear abolition also to support the world's most important organization and its Charter: the United Nations?

You get the gist. I list them merely because it is extremely important these days to think of alternatives to the ongoing rampant NATO militarism, re-think the triumphalist, provocative NATO expansion and refer to words and concepts that were important some years ago and are now totally canceled - like peace, cooperation, common security, reconciliation and media - from the Western discourse.

As of the time of writing, very little has been stated about the US-Nordic Summit's purpose and content. They meet the day after they have met in Vilnius where the blind-to-consequences support for Ukraine will be repeated, and NATO nations will continue to disagree on whether or not, or at what time and under what criteria, Ukraine can join.

So it must be assumed that when US President Joe Biden goes to Finland, it is a signaling and photo opportunity operation mixed with some substantial Nordic issues. Undoubtedly, the Nordic countries' forward role in militarizing the Arctic further will be on the agenda.

Biden is likely to thank Finland for already negotiating US bases near the Finnish-Russian border, Denmark for negotiating US bases, and Norway for having them already. The US that declines on civilian indicators but re-arms militarily will always push for more military tools anywhere - some 600 bases in 130 countries is never enough, like the next beer is never the last for an alcoholic.

Biden will also secure that the Nordic countries never mention Nord Stream again, the pipeline he himself stated that the US would destroy. He will likely mention that the US would appreciate it if the Nordic press is muted on this issue; had it been Russia, they would have had a full blast concerning this the largest infrastructure destruction in peacetime. And he will express his pleasure that the leading mainstream media in the Nordic countries are all solidly pro-NATO and anti-Russia.

Biden will surely also like to hear from his European counterparts whether they fear major social upheaval. The longer the war in Ukraine lasts, the more the Europeans will feel the price hikes and the reduction in benefits and life quality. When will they begin to link it to the EU/NATO response to the Russia-Ukraine war? Whatever the judgments he receives, he will likely continue to put pressure on all to weaken Russia and then direct the wartime EU economies that will be created toward China.

Predictably, Russia's invasion has functioned as a huge gift to NATO. If Putin fell into NATO's expansion provocation trap, Finland and Sweden fell into the NATO hysteria/fear-mongering trap; they moved, in the heat of a moment and without in-depth analysis, into something they will not get out of before the US Empire - and with it NATO - declines further and dissolves like its Eastern brother did a good 30 years ago.

A bit of cool, prudent statesmanship, more knowledge, and experience could have avoided it all. Russia never was and still is not a threat to the Nordic countries, no matter what calm hysterics may say about the formidable threat of Russia (soon down to 4-5 percent of NATO's military expenditure) and Ukraine as the first of many dominos to fall.

It goes beyond all rationality and common sense. None of it bears on a balanced assessment of Nordic, European, and global realities, but it does serve US/NATO psycho-political projection and manipulation by "fearology," - selling politics by making the masses fear - and pay. The Nordic security elites will not confront the US; they'll be more loyal to Washington than to their own peoples' traditional preference for civilian conflict-resolution and disarmament.

In sum, the US-Nordic Summit will come and it will go. Nothing new will happen. These "groupthink" elites inside militarism's box will neither see the short- or long-term writing on the wall. So don't expect changes in their cul-de-sac policies.

The author is director of the Sweden-based think tank Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn