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.

Formal access was completed a few hours after Hungary, the last partner to approve admission, delivered the ratification documents.

In a message on the social network invited Sweden to join the North Atlantic Treaty.”

The White House confirmed the step in a statement: “Having Sweden as a NATO ally will increase the security of the United States and our allies,” it noted.

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.

This Thursday's ceremony has an especially symbolic meaning in Washington.

If re-elected, Trump threatens to skip the fundamental principle of the Alliance, collective defense, and let Moscow do “whatever the hell it wants” with member countries that do not invest at least 2% of their GDP in spending. military.

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.

For NATO, the entry of Sweden, added to the recent entry of Finland, 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 Kalinin 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 its Baltic members - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - by sea, 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 refused 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 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.

Follow all the international information on

Facebook

and

X

, or in

our weekly newsletter

.

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I am already a subscriber

_