Sweden's last hurdle to joining NATO was removed yesterday after the Hungarian parliament approved the country's entry. This ended 200 years during which military independence and neutrality during two world wars helped Stockholm build a reputation as a neutral peacemaker and defender of human rights.
The vote in Hungary's parliament ended months of delays to finalize a change in Sweden's security policy, and followed a visit by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristerson on Friday during which the two countries signed an arms deal.
Kristerson said at a press conference last night that Sweden is leaving behind 200 years of neutrality and military non-alignment. "It's a big step and something that needs to be taken seriously."
"We are joining NATO in order to defend even better what we are and what we believe in." We defend our freedom, our democracy and our values, together with others," he said.
Sweden's membership in NATO was supported by 188 members of the Hungarian parliament, six were against and there were no abstentions.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's government has faced pressure from NATO allies to support Sweden's admission to the military alliance.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg immediately welcomed the ratification in the Hungarian parliament.
"Sweden's membership will make us all stronger and safer," X posted online.
Sweden's entry into NATO will strengthen the security of the United States and the alliance as a whole, said the American ambassador in Budapest, David Pressman, after the vote in the parliament. He pointed out that the ratification is "of strategic importance" for Hungary as well.
Stockholm abandoned its policy of non-alignment in exchange for greater security within NATO following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
After Sweden followed Finland and decided to join NATO, Russian President Vladimir Putin actually contributed to what he tried to prevent when he launched the war on Ukraine - the expansion of the Western military alliance, Western leaders said.
"As far as Russia is concerned, the only thing we can expect is that they will not like Sweden becoming a member of NATO," Kristerson said. "What else they will do about it, we cannot know. We are ready for all possible scenarios".
Sweden brings valuable resources such as modern submarines designed for the conditions in the Black Sea and a significant fleet of home-made bombers
Although Finland became a NATO member last year, Sweden had to wait while Turkey and Hungary, which have better relations with Russia than other members of the alliance, raised objections.
Turkey has delayed ratifying Sweden's membership by demanding stronger action against militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party it claims are residing in Sweden.
In order to please Turkey, Sweden changed its laws and relaxed the rules regarding the sale of arms, Reuters reminds. President Tayyip Erdogan also tied the ratification to the US approval of the sale of F-16 bombers to Turkey, and Ankara now expects the consent of the US Congress.
Hungary's stalling was less clear, with Budapest expressing more displeasure at Swedish criticism of the direction of democratic development under nationalist Prime Minister Orbán than specifying specific demands.
The admission of Sweden, which has not fought a war since 1814, and Finland is NATO's most significant expansion since its entry into Eastern Europe in the 1990s.
Although Sweden has strengthened cooperation with the Alliance in recent decades, contributing to operations such as the one in Afghanistan, its membership will simplify defense planning and cooperation on NATO's northern periphery.
"NATO is getting a member that is serious and removes the factor of uncertainty in Northern Europe," Robert Dalsjo, a senior analyst at the Swedish Defense Research Agency, told Reuters.
"Sweden Gets Group Security ... Backed by US Nuclear Deterrence".
Sweden also brings valuable resources such as modern submarines designed for the conditions in the Black Sea and a significant fleet of home-made bombers. That country, as Reuters points out, is increasing its military spending and this year should achieve the NATO goal of two percent of GDP.
The membership ratification should be signed by the president of the state and the parliament within a few days, followed by other formalities, such as the submission of documents in Washington, which will probably be completed quickly.
Although NATO membership does not seem controversial, some Swedes fear that it means a fundamental change of identity.
"The historically strong Swedish voice on peace and disarmament seems to have fallen silent," Kerstin Bergel, chairwoman of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Association, a prominent peace movement since 1883, told Reuters.
"The goal of peace is part of our DNA," she added.
Veteran diplomat Jan Eliasson, former head of diplomacy and deputy secretary general of the UN, said that it was precisely because of Sweden's neutrality that he was able to mediate in a series of global conflicts.
Like many Swedes of his generation, Eliasson said he was proud of his country's reputation as a moral force, epitomized by former prime minister Olof Palme, a vocal supporter of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa who was assassinated in Stockholm in 1986.
However, he pointed out that the Russian invasion of Ukraine affected public opinion and his attitude.
"We saw with our own eyes... a terrible military aggression against another country, and unfortunately we found ourselves in a position where our defense is relatively unprepared," Eliasson said.
"Aggression, war crimes, entry of Finland and democracy. That was enough for me".
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