Sweden became the 32nd member of NATO 11 months later than Finland, although the countries applied together
Sweden’s path to NATO, which began on May 18, 2022, with the submission of an application jointly with Finland, has finally come to an end.
According to the US State Department, which is the depositary of the NATO treaty, Sweden was admitted to the Alliance on March 7, 2024.
And despite the fact that Sweden applied together with Finland, Stockholm’s path turned out to be much longer. First, Turkey, and then Hungary stood in the way of the country’s membership in the Alliance.
And while Ankara explicitly stated its dissatisfaction with Sweden’s support for Kurdish organizations, Budapest’s position was completely destructive. Even after the application was ratified by the parliament, the president, who performs mostly formal representative functions, delayed its approval as long as possible.
But in the end, Sweden became the 32nd member of NATO today, 11 months later than Finland. And with that, it finally made the whole of Scandinavia a single defense bloc.
It should also be noted that Sweden has been focusing on neutrality since the late nineteenth century. The country did not take part in the First and Second World Wars, and throughout the Cold War it resolved its security issues on its own, realizing that in the event of Soviet aggression it would have to fight back on its own, waiting for help from partners rather than allies.
