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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (right) stands with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson before presenting Sweden’s NATO accession documents in the Benjamin Franklin Room at the State Department in Washington on Thursday.
Jess Rapfogel/AP
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Jess Rapfogel/AP
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (right) stands with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson before presenting Sweden’s NATO accession documents in the Benjamin Franklin Room at the State Department in Washington on Thursday.
Jess Rapfogel/AP
WASHINGTON — Sweden officially joined NATO on Thursday as the 32nd member of the transatlantic military alliance, amid growing concerns about Russian aggression in Europe following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. It ended the decades of postwar neutrality.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Secretary of State Antony Blinken presided over a ceremony in which Sweden’s “instruments of accession” to the alliance were formally deposited at the State Department.
“This is a historic moment for Sweden. It’s historic for the alliance, it’s historic for our transatlantic relationship,” Blinken said. “Our NATO alliance is now stronger and bigger than ever.”
“We are therefore a safer country,” Kristersson wrote in a social media post.
Then Thursday. Christerson will visit the White House and be the guest of honor at President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address to Congress.
The White House said Sweden’s membership as a NATO ally “will further enhance the security of the United States and our allies.”
“NATO is the most powerful defense alliance in the history of the world and is as vital to keeping our people safe today as it was 75 years ago when our alliance was founded from the ashes of World War II. ” he said. said in a statement.
President Biden (right) speaks with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in the Oval Office in Washington on July 5, 2023. Sweden officially joins NATO as the 32nd member of the Transatlantic Military Alliance.
Evan Vucci/Associated Press
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President Biden (right) speaks with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in the Oval Office in Washington on July 5, 2023. Sweden officially joins NATO as the 32nd member of the Transatlantic Military Alliance.
Evan Vucci/Associated Press
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg described it as a “historic day”.
“Sweden will now have an equal voice in shaping NATO’s policies and decisions and will have a rightful place at the NATO table,” he said in a statement.
On Monday, the Swedish flag will be hoisted in front of the military headquarters in Brussels. Stoltenberg stressed that the Nordic country “currently enjoys the protections afforded it under Article 5, which is the ultimate guarantee of the freedom and security of its allies.”
Article 5 of the NATO Treaty obligates all member states to come to the aid of allies whose territory or security is threatened. It has only been invoked once by the United States after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and is the kind of collective security that Sweden has sought since Russia invaded Ukraine.
“With Sweden’s membership, NATO will be stronger, Sweden will be safer, and the entire alliance will be safer,” Stoltenberg said. He added that the move “demonstrates that NATO’s doors remain open and that all countries have the right to choose their own path.”
Sweden, along with Finland, which joined NATO last year, abandoned the longstanding military neutrality that had been a hallmark of the Nordic countries’ Cold War foreign policy after Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022.
In his speech to Congress, Biden is expected to point to Sweden’s membership in NATO as evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to divide and weaken the alliance have failed as a direct result of the invasion of Ukraine. And the Democratic president is expected to use Sweden’s decision to join the party to step up demands on Republicans reluctant to approve stalled military aid to Ukraine as the war enters its third year. There is.
Mr. Biden and the NATO nations have vowed that Ukraine will join at some point.
Sweden’s membership had been suspended due to opposition from NATO members Turkey and Hungary. Turkey has expressed concern that Sweden is harboring Kurdish groups it considers terrorists and is not doing enough against them, and Hungarian populist President Viktor Orbán has expressed pro-Russian sentiments. , does not share the alliance’s determination to support Ukraine.
After months of delays, Turkey approved Sweden’s membership earlier this year, followed by Hungary this week.
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