As of today, Sweden is the 32nd country to officially join NATO. Sweden officially joins NATO as fears of a Russian invasion in Europe grow.
The Nordic country tried to join the military union in May 2022, but Turkey and Hungary held it up.
Sweden officially joined NATO on Thursday, becoming the 32nd country to do so. This ended decades of neutrality after World War II, at a time when fears of Russian aggression in Europe have grown since Russia’s attack on Ukraine in 2022.
At about 5:30 p.m. Swedish time, the process was over. “Unity and solidarity will be Sweden’s guiding lights as a NATO member,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a statement released in Washington, DC, after meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“We will share our responsibilities, burdens, and risks with our allies,” he said.
“Good things come to those who wait,” Blinken said as he got Sweden’s papers to join the EU.
“This is an important moment for Sweden, our alliance, and the relationship between the US and Europe,” Blinken said.
It was Kristersson who said that Sweden was “coming home” to NATO.
NATO’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, was one of the first people to applaud Sweden. He also said that on Monday, the Swedish flag would be flown outside NATO’s headquarters in Brussels.
Sweden and Hungary, which was the last country to approve Sweden’s membership, finally turned in all the necessary paperwork in Washington on Thursday, bringing an end to a long process that had been going on for almost two years.
For Sweden, it ends a 20-month wait that began in May 2022, when it sent in its application to join Finland. This was because Russia invaded Ukraine in February of that year. Last year, Finland became the 31st country to join NATO.
EU member states of NATO
Twelve countries came together in 1949 to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the partnership grew to include Eastern Europe. It was in May 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, that Finland and Sweden asked to join.
But Turkey and Hungary, which are friends with Moscow and took a long time to approve Stockholm’s membership, slowed down the country’s efforts to join the bloc for months.
In January, Turkey’s parliament decided to support Sweden’s bid. This came about after several months of hostilities between the two nations, which were primarily the result of a wave of Quran-burning protests in Sweden that infuriated Turkish lawmakers.
But Sweden had to wait even longer because Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban turned down Sweden’s bid more than once. Hungary’s government finally approved Sweden’s accession last month.
The official joining date for Finland was April 2023. This made NATO’s border with Russia more than twice as long, which was a blow to President Vladimir Putin, who has been trying to stop the union from growing.