WASHINGTON\/STOCKHOLM
\nSweden is expected to formally join NATO in Washington on Thursday, two years after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine forced a complete rethink of its national security policy and the realization the alliance offered the best guarantee of safety.
\nSwedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is in Washington to hand over the final documentation, with the White House saying in a statement ahead of President Joe Biden\u2019s State of the Union Address that Sweden would join on Thursday.
\n\u201cHaving Sweden as a NATO Ally will make the United States and our Allies even safer,\u201d the statement said.
\nKristersson said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had informed him that Sweden had been formally invited to join after all member states accepted the country\u2019s accession protocol.
\n\u201cSweden will soon be NATO\u2019s 32nd member,\u201d he said on X.
\nThe Swedish government said separately it would take the formal decision for the country to join NATO on Thursday.
\nFor NATO, the accession of Sweden and Finland \u2014 which shares a 1,340 km border with Russia \u2014 is the most significant expansion for decades. It is also a blow for Russian President Vladimir Putin who has sought prevent any further strengthening of the alliance.
\nSweden will benefit from the alliance\u2019s common defense guarantee under which an attack on one member is regarded as an attack on all.
\n\u201cWe have to face the world as it is not how we sometimes wish it were,\u201d Kristersson said after Hungary became the last NATO member to ratify Sweden\u2019s accession last week.
\nSweden adds cutting-edge submarines and a sizable fleet of domestically produced Gripen fighter jets to NATO forces and would be a crucial link between the Atlantic and Baltic.
\nRussia has threatened to take unspecified \u201cpolitical and military-technical counter-measures\u201d in response to Sweden\u2019s move.
\nWhile Stockholm has been drawing ever closer to NATO over the last two decades, membership marks a clear break with the past, when for more than 200 years, Sweden avoided military alliances and adopted a neutral stance in times of war.
\nAfter World War Two, it built an international reputation as a champion of human rights, and when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, successive governments have pared back military spending.
\nAs recently as 2021, its defense minister had rejected NATO membership, only for the then-Social Democrat government to apply, alongside neighbor Finland, just a few months later.
\nWhile Finland joined last year, Sweden was kept waiting as Turkiye and Hungary, which both maintain cordial relations with Russia, delayed ratifying Sweden\u2019s accession.
\nTurkiye approved Sweden\u2019s application in January.
\nHungary delayed its move until Kristersson made a goodwill visit to Budapest on Feb. 23, where the two countries agreed a fighter jet deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON\/STOCKHOLM Sweden is expected to formally join NATO in Washington on Thursday, two years after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine forced a complete rethink of its national security policy and the realization the alliance offered the best guarantee of safety. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is in Washington to hand over the final documentation, with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392227,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-392217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n