Sweden will formally request admission to the OTAN. This is how he decided Government of the country after the new security situation that has been generated after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Magdalena Andersson, Prime Minister of Swedenhas highlighted: “After the debate in the Government, we had an additional meeting and we made two decisions. The first is that the Government has decided to inform the OTAN about what Sweden wants to become a member of the alliance, and that the Swedish ambassador to NATO will submit this request shortly.”
The country ends two centuries based on non-alignment in foreign policy. Thus, it joins the process in which it also advances Finland. the russian president Putin has indicated that this decision is not a problem for Russia but has pointed out: “Regarding expansion, with the inclusion of new members such as Finland and Sweden…I would like to remind you, dear colleagues, that Russia It has no problem with those countries. Therefore, there is no immediate threat to Russia with the inclusion of those countries. But the expansion of military coverage in that territory will obviously require our response. And we will determine what that response will be based on the threats that are created.”
Sweden has also decided to send a proposal to parliament to enable the country to receive military support from the EU and the OTAN while the ratification process lasts, which is expected to take about a year.
“Sweden is going to be in a vulnerable situation for as long as our application is processed,” said Andersson, who in recent weeks it has received guarantees from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and its Nordic neighbors.
The governments of Denmark, Norway and Iceland they reiterated in a joint statement their willingness to push for rapid ratification of the requests in their parliaments and to offer military assistance if necessary.
Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist will travel to Washington today, invited by the US Department of Defense, to meet with his colleague Lloyd Austin.
Sweden and Finland already received yesterday the accolade of the OTAN at an informal meeting in Berlin of their foreign ministers, although Turkey has been critical of both for their alleged backing of Kurdish activists and others whom it considers “terrorists”.
“We are going to send a group of officials to hold discussions and a dialogue with Turkey,” Hultqvist told public television SVT, stressing that the “signals” he has received from NATO is that there is, however, unanimity within the the Alliance in accepting the entry of the two Nordic countries
