A JAS 39 Gripen C/D fighter jet takes off from Luleå Kallax Airport, Sweden, March 4, 2024 during NATO Military Exercise 24 Northern Response, a Norwegian national exercise conducted in northern Sweden, Norway and Finland with their associated airspace and waters. .
Anders Wiklund | AFP | Getty Images
Sweden officially joined NATO as its 32nd member on Thursday, nearly two years after it first applied to join the military alliance.
Earlier on Thursday, the Swedish government said in statement It was holding an extraordinary meeting to vote on joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) after all current members agreed to its joining the military alliance.
The news was confirmed later Thursday with a statement from NATO, where Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the country was “taking its rightful place at our table.”
“Sweden's accession makes NATO stronger, Sweden more secure, and the entire alliance more secure. I look forward to raising its flag at NATO headquarters on Monday,” he added.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to deliver the final documents. The country first applied to join NATO in May 2022, shortly after Russia's war on Ukraine began. This marked a major change from Sweden's previous policy of military non-alignment dating back to the Napoleonic Wars.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken receives NATO ratification documents from Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson during a ceremony at the US State Department, as Sweden officially joins NATO, in Washington, DC, on March 7, 2024.
Andrew Caballero Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
Finland became an official member of NATO last April, after Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine. Authorities in both Helsinki and Stockholm decided that following Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, their country was no longer safe on its own and applied to join the coalition a few months later.
NATO members Hungary and Turkey postponed Sweden's accession process, and the two countries did not vote in favor until this year. All current members must agree to a new country joining the alliance, whose basic principle is that an attack on one of these countries is an attack on all of them.
Hungary's ruling party, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has long opposed Sweden's NATO membership amid Sweden's criticism of the state of democracy in Hungary. The two countries' prime ministers met in Budapest, Hungary last month and committed to working to resolve the differences, saying they would “die for each other.”
Meanwhile, Turkey ratified Sweden's membership in NATO in January. She had previously said that Sweden is too tolerant of groups that the Turkish government considers security threats. Anti-Muslim protests in Sweden last year further strained relations.
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