BRUSSELS, March 7 (EUROPA PRESS) –
This Thursday, Sweden became a new member of NATO after completing all the procedures for its integration into the military organization, once Hungary has deposited the accession protocol in Washington. This culminates a process that was presumed to be ‘express’, but which ultimately took 22 months due to the reluctance of Turkey and Hungary.
The United States Department of State has confirmed that “the entry conditions were met” for Sweden’s accession to NATO after the step taken by Budapest, which is followed by the candidate country’s own protocol, in this case Sweden becoming in the 32nd ally of the organization.
Stockholm thus joins its Finnish neighbors who joined NATO 11 months ago and after both submitted their application for membership in May 2022, just a few months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In this way, the Swedes and Finns complete an unprecedented turn in their neutrality policy of the last two centuries, in direct response to the growing threat that Moscow represents in international security after the attack launched against Ukraine.
In a joint event in Washington, the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, presented Sweden’s instrument of accession to the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who stressed that with the entry of the Scandinavian country, NATO “is stronger and bigger than ever.”
After acknowledging that just three years ago Sweden’s accession “was not planned, nor was it foreseeable,” Blinken stressed that this step is the “clearest example” that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “precipitating with his aggression the that I wanted to avoid”, in reference to the expansion of NATO.
Blinken has had words of recognition for the “determination and diplomacy” of Stockholm and the work of the Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, to complete the process of joining NATO 22 months later and has summarized that with this accession NATO “strengthens” your shield against external aggression.
On the side of the already 32nd NATO ally, Kristersson has stressed that Sweden’s entry into the military bloc is a “victory for freedom.” “Sweden has made a decision in a free, democratic, sovereign, unified manner by joining NATO,” he said, reiterating the “overwhelming” support in the Swedish Parliament and society for joining the alliance.
The Scandinavian prime minister has recognized the “enormous step” that it is to leave behind two centuries of non-alignment but has stressed that joining NATO is a “natural step” for Stockholm since it will become part of an alliance that is “the home of freedom and peace” and in which there are already countries close to Sweden both geographically and in values.
Kristersson has acknowledged that the Russian threat to international security prompted Sweden’s application for membership in NATO and will continue to be present in the years to come. “Sweden requested entry in this context. To gain security but also to provide it and we have unique means to contribute in the land, sea and air environment,” he noted.
ACCESSION PROCESS MARKED BY Türkiye’S OBSTACLES
After Sweden’s formal integration as a member of NATO, a flag-raising ceremony is scheduled to be held on Monday at the headquarters of the Atlantic alliance in Brussels, an act with which allies traditionally welcome new members.
Although at first the military organization anticipated an ‘express’ accession of Sweden and Finland and it was noted that their incorporation could be completed in just a few months, by the end of 2022 or beginning of 2023, both Nordic candidates have had to deal with with the reluctance of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has delayed entry into NATO for months, alleging lack of cooperation in anti-terrorist matters and alleged collusion with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
In this way, the political approval of the allies, which arrived in a few weeks, was followed by the ratification process, which proved to be the most complex step as it is a bureaucratic procedure that depends in many cases on procedures in national parliaments.
The summit of NATO leaders in Madrid, called to serve as a stage to stage the welcome to the Swedes and Finns, became in June 2022 the framework in which the Turkish president revealed his cards by achieving a tripartite agreement in which Sweden and Finland They committed to cooperating with Ankara in the fight against terrorism to unblock the accession process in the Turkish Parliament.
After months of tug-of-war, including the crisis over the burning of copies of the Koran in different Nordic countries, and several trips by the NATO Secretary General to Ankara to defend the advances of Sweden and Finland in the face of Turkish “legitimate concerns” on the matter security, Turkey cleared the veto on Finland in April 2023, allowing its entry into the military bloc then, but leaving Sweden’s candidacy pending further reforms.
In another ‘in extremis’ agreement on the eve of the NATO leaders’ summit in Lithuania last July, Erdogan agreed to unblock the ratification of Sweden’s accession and bring it to the Turkish Grand National Assembly “as soon as possible” for a vote. parliamentary, in what seemed the last obstacle to Stockholm’s entry. In any case, this step did not materialize until last January, when the Turkish deputies meeting in the Assembly finally gave their approval to ratify entry into the military bloc.
Once the Turkish obstacle was removed, the approval of Hungary remained ahead, a country that officially had no great reluctance to Sweden’s entry and which at all times defended that it would not be the last ally to give the ‘green light’. A month after the Turkish approval and after getting the Swedish Prime Minister to travel to Budapest to close an agreement for the sale of Swedish-made fighter jets, the Hungarian National Parliament approved the Stockholm ratification at the end of February.
In these 22 months, Stoltenberg, who is living his last months at the head of NATO, has been a great defender of Sweden’s entry into the bloc, pointing out that it would benefit the alliance as a whole and make NATO stronger. The Nordic leader has defended the commitment of Sweden and Finland to enter the organization and recognized the historic step of both. During Stoltenberg’s decade as political head of NATO, in addition to Sweden and Finland, Montenegro, in 2017, and North Macedonia, in 2020, joined.
