Sweden finally joins NATO

USA - Sweden on Thursday became the 32nd member of NATO, turning the page on two centuries of non-alignment and capping two years of tortuous diplomacy after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered new fears.

Days after Hungary followed key holdout Turkey and became the last NATO member to sign off, Sweden ceremonially handed over accession documents to the United States, the leading force of the transatlantic alliance that promises joint security for all.

Rival

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson late on Thursday attended as a guest at the annual State of the Union Address of US President Joe Biden, whose rival Donald Trump has disparaged NATO as unfairly burdening the US.

“Mr prime minister, welcome to NATO, the strongest military alliance the world has ever seen,” Biden said as he recognised Kristersson, who sat in the gallery next to First Lady Jill Biden. Biden urged the House Leadership of the Republican Party to move on billions of Dollars in military aid to Ukraine, saying, in a dig at Trump, that “I will not bow down” to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you he will not,” Biden said.

Kristersson, at an accession ceremony at the State Department,

called joining NATO “a major step but, at the same time, a very natural step”.

He said: “It’s a victory for freedom today. Sweden has made a free, democratic, sovereign and united choice to join NATO.”

Small

He later delivered a televised address to the nation from Washington, telling Swedes: “We are a small country, but we understand more than most the importance of the greater world beyond our borders.”