As of: February 28, 2024, 7:11 p.m
By: Sandra Kathe
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Press
Split
As a soon-to-be new NATO member, Sweden plans to spend two percent of its gross domestic product on defense.
Stockholm - With Hungary's approval of Sweden's accession to NATO, the country's path to the defense alliance is open.
While Russia is already talking about a threat and, as a result, possible retaliatory measures, NATO says that Sweden is making the alliance “stronger and safer”.
The alliance will not only grow to 32 member states in the future, but also a militarily strong partner that, due to its over 800 kilometer long border with Russia, has been concerned with the possibility of aggression on the part of Russia and thus also various defense strategies for many years.
This means that a not insignificant amount of weapons will end up in the defense alliance with Sweden.
Compulsory military service has been in force again in Sweden since 2017, but the number of active military personnel is still relatively low.
(Symbolic photo) © Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP
Sweden in NATO: Small armed forces, modern equipment
As the US newspaper
Newsweek
quotes expert Neil Melvin from London's Royal United Services Institute, the country's military strengths include its air force with over a hundred modern jets, a powerful navy with five submarines and an advanced industrial defense base.
In addition, the country plans to spend two percent of its gross domestic product on defense resources by the end of 2024.
In terms of personnel, Sweden, where a special form of conscription was reintroduced in 2017, is modern but not very numerous.
According to Newsweek, the country's military has 24,000 professional soldiers, plus 11,400 reserve forces and 21,000 "homeland security" forces, who are also part of the reserve.
From 2025 onwards, 8,000 instead of 6,000 additional reserve forces will be added every year.
Sweden's NATO accession: what happens now
The country has already made it clear in the past few days that Russia perceives Sweden's upcoming NATO accession as a threat.
According to a report by the
German Press Agency
, the embassy threatened to take retaliatory measures of a political and military-technical nature in order to prevent threats to its national security.
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After the Hungarian Parliament approved Sweden's accession to NATO, the accession protocol must still be signed by the President of Hungary.
After the President's signature in Hungary, the ratification still has to appear in the Hungarian Official Gazette.
This can take up to eight days.
The ratification must then be formally deposited with the US State Department in Washington.
Then Sweden would have the approval of all 31 current NATO members and accession could take place
.
(saka with dpa)