Sweden joins NATO and completes the reinforcement of the Alliance after the Russian aggression |

Sweden has officially become NATO’s 32nd partner this Thursday in Washington. In a ceremony at the State Department, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken ratified the Scandinavian country’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty, two years after the Russian invasion. of Ukraine will trigger a profound change in Stockholm’s national security positions that has led it to abandon two centuries of military neutrality.

“Truly, today is a historic day. Sweden is already part of NATO,” Kristersson stressed, when delivering the formal documentation to the Secretary of State. For his part, Blinken welcomed him and noted: “Today we have strengthened the shield (of the Alliance) against aggression. “We put more people under their protection, so together we can focus on the real work, improving the lives of our people.” Formal access was completed a few hours after Hungary, the last partner to approve admission, delivered the ratification documents.

It’s official – #Sweden is now the 32nd member of #NATOtaking its rightful place at our table. Sweden’s accession makes NATO stronger, Sweden safer, and the whole Alliance more secure. I look forward to raising their flag at NATO HQ on Monday.

— Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) March 7, 2024

Both the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, have issued solemn words on the occasion of the accession. With the entry of Sweden, NATO “and transatlantic security are stronger than ever”; “Our democratic values, and our willingness to fight for them, are what make NATO the best alliance in history,” Biden said in a statement. Stoltenberg has expressed himself in similar terms: “It is a historic day. Sweden will now take its rightful place at the NATO table […] and it will make NATO stronger, Sweden safer and the entire Alliance safer.”

Sweden, indicated the head of US diplomacy, will provide the organization with “unique capabilities, in the Arctic and Baltic seas. Of course, it will contribute more than 2% of its GDP to defense and will continue to lead the way for all NATO members.” “The reason this fits so powerfully, so strongly, is that Sweden embodies and promotes the fundamental values ​​that are the reason for NATO: democracy, freedom, the rule of law,” he added.

Kristersson will be one of the guests of honor of the first lady, Jill Biden, tonight at the State of the Union address that President Joe Biden will present before both houses of Congress. The speech represents the most solemn act on the American political calendar and, this year, marks the beginning of the electoral campaign that will pit the head of state against Republican Donald Trump for the leadership of the country.

High symbolism

This Thursday’s ceremony has an especially symbolic meaning in Washington. If re-elected, Trump threatens to ignore the fundamental principle of the Alliance, collective defense, and let Moscow do “whatever the hell it wants,” as he said last February, with member countries that do not invest at least the 2% of its GDP in military spending. His words have sown concern in the rest of the member countries. Biden, on the other hand, demonstrates his commitment to the organization, for decades the great pillar of transatlantic relations.

For Sweden, which for two centuries had opted for neutrality in international conflicts, the step represents a 180-degree turn in its foreign and defense policy, unthinkable just three years ago. The Russian aggression against Ukraine made it conclude that the organization’s common defense guarantee, the principle that if one of the members is attacked the others are obliged to come to its aid, represented its best card to be protected against possible hostile acts. from Moscow. “We have to face the world as it is, not as we would like it to be,” Kristersson had declared after Hungary ratified Sweden’s admission last week.

“The security situation in our region has not been this serious since World War II. Russia will remain a serious threat to Euro-Atlantic security for the foreseeable future. Given this, Sweden asked to join the Alliance, to gain security, but also to provide security,” Kristersson declared at the ceremony this Thursday at the State Department.

For NATO, the entry of Sweden, added to the recent entry of Finland, which took place in April of last year, represents its greatest expansion since the accession of the Eastern European countries, in a key area. The two new members share a 1,340-kilometer border with Russia; and, with them, the Alliance manages to be present throughout the Baltic Sea, with the exception of the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad between the Baltic States and Poland. The Swedish flag will be raised at NATO headquarters in Brussels in a ceremony next Monday.

The membership of Stockholm and Helsinki reinforces the Alliance’s ability to assist by sea its Baltic members – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – until now very vulnerable to a hypothetical Russian attack. Sweden, the gateway to the Baltic and connection between this sea and the Atlantic Ocean, will provide the organization with a modern fleet of submarines and Gripen, indigenously manufactured fighter aircraft. Its island of Gottland is strategic for supporting the three Baltic States.

The consummation of Sweden’s accession represents a blow to Moscow, which has threatened to adopt “political and military-technical measures” that it has not specified in response to the Stockholm step. Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that “the long decades of good neighborliness have been shattered” because from now on, American troops “have the right to do whatever they want in Sweden, visit any facility and create your own.”

Although the country applied to join NATO in 2022—months after its Defense Ministry had declined to apply—its membership comes a year after Finland’s. Turkey and Hungary, two governments that maintain cordial relations with Russia, were the last to give the unanimous approval required by Alliance member countries to accept a new partner.

Turkey relented last month, days before Washington agreed to a sale of F-16 aircraft to that country. Budapest did not give the green light until a visit by Kristersson two weeks ago, in which both countries closed an agreement for the supply of Swedish fighter aircraft to Hungary.

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