The Nordic country applied to join the military alliance in May 2022 but faced delays from Turkey and Hungary.
Sweden has officially joined the NATO military alliance, ending decades of neutrality amid growing concerns about Russian aggression in Europe following the invasion of Ukraine.
“Unity and unity will guide Sweden as a member of NATO,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a statement in Washington, D.C., after a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“We will share the burden, responsibility and risk with our allies,” he said.
“Good things come to those who wait,” Blinken said as he accepted Sweden's accession documents.
“This is a historic moment for Sweden, for our alliance, and for our transatlantic relationship,” Blinken said.
Sweden's Minister of Employment and Integration, Johan Persson, called the accession “a new era of security policy for Sweden” at a press conference in Stockholm on Thursday, adding that he had personally been waiting for such a decision for 20 years. Ta.
Sweden is currently a member of NATO. Dear Alliance, thank you for welcoming us as your 32nd member. We strive for unity, solidarity and burden-sharing, and fully adhere to the CITES values of freedom, democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. We will become stronger together.
— Swedish PM (@SwedishPM) March 7, 2024
Concerns about Russian military threats
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 prompted Sweden and neighboring Finland, which shares a 1,340 km (832 mile) border with Russia, to apply to join NATO.
“We have to face the world because the world is not what we want,” Kristersson said after Hungary became the last North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) country to ratify Sweden's membership last week. he said.
Sweden's lack of military preparedness was demonstrated in 2013 when Russian bombers flew over the Gulf of Finland near the Swedish island of Gotland in what appeared to be a mock nuclear attack. Stockholm required the support of NATO fighters to keep Russian aircraft out of its airspace.
The following year, there were reports of Russian submarines operating in the Stockholm Islands.
Sweden's shift away from neutrality
Over the past two decades, Stockholm has moved closer and closer to NATO, but this joining marks a clear break from Sweden's more than 200 years of avoiding military alliances and remaining neutral in times of war. There is.
After World War II, the country built an international reputation as a champion of human rights, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, successive governments cut military spending.
In 2021, the country's defense minister refused to join NATO, but just a few months later, the then-Social Democratic government applied for membership alongside neighboring Finland.
Finland joined last year, but Sweden was forced to wait because Turkey and Hungary delayed ratifying Sweden's membership.
Turkey approved Sweden's application in January.
Hungary postponed the move until Kristersson visited Budapest on February 23, during which time the two countries agreed on a fighter jet deal.
Sweden will add a large fleet of state-of-the-art submarines and indigenous Gripen fighter jets to its NATO forces, providing a vital bridge between the Atlantic and Baltic Seas.
Russia has threatened unspecified “political and military-technical countermeasures” in response to Sweden's move.