The Kingdom of Sweden has officially joined the North Atlantic Alliance. This was reported by the NATO press service, Kommersant Ukrainian reports
With Sweden’s accession, NATO now has 32 countries among its members.
“Sweden became NATO’s newest member on Thursday, 7 March 2024, after depositing its instrument of accession to the North Atlantic Treaty with the United States government in Washington, D.C.”
– the statement said.
The Protocol of Accession is published on the website of the US Department of State.
The document states that “on 7 March 2024, the conditions for entry into force set forth in Article II of the Protocol to the North Atlantic Treaty on the Accession of the Kingdom of Sweden were met.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said:
“This is a historic day. Sweden will now take its rightful place at the NATO table with an equal voice in shaping NATO’s policies and decisions. After more than 200 years of non-alignment, Sweden already enjoys the protection afforded by Article 5, a crucial guarantee of Allied freedom and security. Sweden brings with it a capable military and a first-class defence industry. Sweden’s accession makes NATO stronger, makes Sweden safer, and makes the whole Alliance better protected.”
Stoltenberg added that Sweden’s accession demonstrates that NATO’s door remains open and that every country has the right to choose its own path.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson thanked all NATO Allies for welcoming Sweden as the 32nd member of the Alliance.
“We will strive for unity, solidarity and burden-sharing and will fully adhere to the values of the Washington Treaty: freedom, democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. We are stronger together,”
– the statement reads.
The Swedish flag will be hoisted alongside the flags of 31 other Allies during a ceremony at NATO Headquarters in Brussels on Monday (11 March 2024), and at NATO Commands in Europe and North America.
NATO’s enlargement
Sweden’s accession process to NATO began in 2022. After the outbreak of Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine, Sweden, along with Finland, abandoned the policy of military neutrality that the two Scandinavian countries had maintained for decades.
Finland was admitted to the Alliance in April 2023 as the 31st member.
Almost all NATO countries quickly ratified Sweden’s accession. Only Turkey and Hungary had problems.
However, after a series of negotiations, Istanbul and Budapest withdrew their objections and approved Stockholm’s accession to NATO. On 5 March, Hungary was the last NATO member state to complete the process of ratifying Sweden’s accession to NATO.
What is NATO?
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) is an international organisation established on 4 April 1949. The main purpose of NATO is to ensure the collective defence and security of its members.
Article 5 states that an armed attack against one or more NATO members will be considered an attack against all members and that “they agree that in the event of such an attack, each of them … will render assistance to the Party or Parties attacked and will take promptly, individually or jointly with other Parties, such action as may be deemed necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain security in the North Atlantic area.”
Such unprecedented guarantees of security, territorial integrity, inviolability of borders and state sovereignty are not provided by any of the existing collective security systems.
The original founders and first members of NATO were 12 countries: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
Since then, the organisation has undergone nine enlargements.
How often do new members join NATO?
NATO’s first enlargement took place in 1952 with the accession of Greece and Turkey. In 1955, West Germany became a member of the Alliance, and in 1990, the entire united country became a member of the organisation.
After 27 years, the longest pause in the expansion, Spain joined the political part of the organisation in 1982 and refrained from participating in the military structure. The country was fully integrated into the bloc in 1997.
In 1999, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic became new members. In 2004, seven new countries joined the alliance: Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Albania and Croatia joined NATO in 2009, Montenegro in 2017, and North Macedonia in 2020.
The most recent NATO enlargement was Finland’s accession in April 2023. Sweden became NATO’s newest member on Thursday 7 March 2024.