J. Stoltenberg: Sweden’s accession to NATO shows V. Putin’s failure

The Kremlin’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine not only led to the accession of Sweden and Finland, which had pursued a policy of military non-alignment for a long time, to NATO: now “Ukraine is closer to NATO membership than it has ever been”, J. Stoltenberg emphasized.

He said this while standing next to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristerson, just before raising the Swedish flag at the NATO headquarters in Brussels. This ceremony marks Sweden becoming the 32nd member of the Alliance.

“When President Putin launched his all-out invasion two years ago, he wanted less NATO and more control over his neighbors. He wanted to destroy Ukraine as a sovereign state, but he failed, – said Mr. Stoltenberg. – NATO [dabar] is bigger and stronger.”

After the NATO Secretary General’s speech, the blue and yellow Swedish flag was raised at the Alliance headquarters. The ceremony was led by U. Kristersson together with J. Stoltenberg.

Finland joined NATO last year, shortly after applying.

Sweden’s accession process was delayed due to delays by NATO members Turkey and Hungary. Finally, Ankara formally ratified Stockholm’s application in January and Budapest last week.

General threats

Sweden officially joined on Thursday in Washington, where U. Kristersson submitted the relevant documents to the US State Department. Later, the Swedish Prime Minister listened to US President Joe Biden’s annual message.

The ceremony of raising the Swedish flag at the NATO headquarters, which took place on a rainy Monday, symbolically established the historic development of the Alliance.

The Swedish flag was raised between the flags of Spain and Turkey, in English alphabetical order.

“Sweden’s accession shows once again that NATO’s door remains open. No one can close them. Every country has the right to choose its own path,” said Mr. Stoltenberg.

A little earlier, during a joint press conference with U. Kristersson, Mr. Stoltenberg admitted that he did not expect to see Finland and Sweden join during his tenure as the Secretary General of the Alliance.

“Of course, that’s completely changed with [Rusijos] a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, and since then everything has gone really fast,” he said.

According to U. Kristersson, Sweden will now “share the burden, responsibility and risk with its allies”.

“The security situation in our region has not been this serious since World War II, and Russia will remain a threat to Euro-Atlantic security for the foreseeable future,” he said.

V. Putin portrays the large-scale invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022 to the Russians as a defensive “special military operation” directed against the expanding NATO.

The member countries of the alliance provide military and financial support to the defending Ukraine. But it is now slowing as US political will weakens ahead of November’s presidential election and Europe struggles to meet Ukraine’s ammunition needs.

Mr. Stoltenberg said that a negotiated peace for Ukraine is possible, but only if Mr. Putin withdraws his forces.

“President Putin started this war and could end it today. However, Ukraine does not have such a choice. Surrender is not peace, said the head of NATO. “We must continue to strengthen Ukraine and show President Putin that he will not get what he wants on the battlefield and that he must sit down and negotiate a solution.”