Sweden Joins NATO

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg hold a joint press conference during Sweden's accession ceremony to the Atlantic Alliance.

On 7 March 2024, Sweden became the 32nd member of NATO in the shadow of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said that Sweden's accession to the alliance shows Russian President Vladimir Putin "failed" in his Ukrainian war strategy of weakening it.

The Kremlin's invasion not only prompted formerly non-aligned nations Sweden and Finland to come under NATO's defense umbrella, but now "Ukraine is closer to NATO membership than ever before," Stoltenberg said.

His comments, made next to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, came just before Sweden's flag was to be run up a flagpole outside NATO's Brussels headquarters in a ceremony sealing Sweden becoming the alliance's 32nd member country.

"NATO is bigger and stronger," Stoltenberg said.

Stoltenberg added that he "didn't expect" to see Finland and Sweden join during his time as the alliance's secretary general.

"Of course this changed totally with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and since then things really moved very quickly."

Finland joined NATO last year, swiftly after applying.

Sweden's adhesion took longer as NATO members Turkey and Hungary held up the process. But Ankara in January and Budapest last week finally gave their formal assent.

Kristersson said Sweden now "will share burdens, responsibilities -- and risks -- with our allies".

"The security situation in our region has not been this serious since the Second World War, and Russia will stay a threat to Euro-Atlantic security for a foreseeable future," he said.

For Russians, Putin has framed his 2022 all-out invasion of Ukraine as a defensive "military operation" against an expanding NATO.