Sweden formally joins NATO military alliance, ending
centuries of neutrality
PUBLISHED THU, MAR 7 202411:36 AM ESTUPDATED 60 MIN AGO
Sophie Kiderlin
Sweden officially joined NATO as its 32nd member on
Thursday, almost two years after first applying to the
military alliance.
Earlier on Thursday, the Swedish government said in a
statement it was holding an extraordinary meeting to
vote on joining NATO after all current members had
approved its accession to the military alliance.
The news was then confirmed later Thursday with a
statement from NATO, with Secretary General Jens
Stoltenberg saying the country was “taking 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,” he added.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson traveled to
Washington, D.C., this week to hand over the final
documents. The country first applied to join NATO in
May 2022, not long after Russia’s war on Ukraine began.
This marked a significant change in Sweden’s previous
policy of military non-alignment which stretches back
to the Napoleonic Wars.
Finland became an official member of NATO last April,
also prompted by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s
decision to invade Ukraine. Authorities in both
Helsinki and Stockholm decided that in the wake of
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February
2022, their nations were no longer safe on their own
and applied to join the alliance a few months later.
NATO members Hungary and Turkey delayed the process of
Sweden’s accession, with both countries only voting in
favor of it this year. All existing members must
approve a new country joining the alliance, whose key
principle is that an attack on one of them is an attack
on all of them.
Hungary’s governing party, led by Prime Minister Viktor
Orban, long opposed Sweden’s NATO membership amid
Sweden’s criticism of the state of democracy in
Hungary. The prime ministers of both countries met in
Budapest, Hungary, last month and committed to work
through differences, saying they would “die for each
other.”
Turkey, meanwhile, ratified Sweden’s NATO membership in
January. It had previously said that Sweden was too
tolerant of group’s that Turkey’s government views as
security threats. Anti-Muslim protests in Sweden last
year further soured relations.
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