“AND Officially, Sweden is the 32nd member state of NATO and has its rightful place at our side. Sweden’s membership makes NATO stronger, Sweden safer, as well as the entire alliance,” wrote Stoltenberg on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
“I’m looking forward to raising the flag [da Suécia] at headquarters [da NATO] on Monday”, he said.
In a statement, the secretary general of the Atlantic Alliance added that “it is a historic day” and that, “after 200 years of neutrality, Sweden is today protected under Article 5 of NATO”, which grants each State -member full support of the rest in case of attack by another nation.
Stoltenberg added that Sweden’s application for membership, made at the same time as Finland’s in 2022, but only concluded two years later, demonstrates that “the door remains open” for any country that wants to join the political-military bloc of which Portugal is a founding member state.
It’s official – #Sweden is now the 32nd member of #NATOtaking its rightful place at our table. Sweden’s accession makes NATO stronger, Sweden safer, and the whole Alliance more secure. I look forward to raising their flag at NATO HQ on Monday.
— Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) March 7, 2024
On Monday, a ceremony will take place to raise the flag of Sweden as the 32nd member state of NATO at the organization’s headquarters in Brussels, capital of Belgium.
Today, Sweden officially became the 32nd member state of NATO, after completing all the formalities for integration into the political-military organization, with Hungary depositing the accession protocol in Washington.
The Hungarian ambassador to the United States today delivered to the State Department in Washington the official documents ratifying Sweden’s accession to NATO, recently approved by the Hungarian parliament, allowing the Swedish Government to present the instrument of access to the head of North American diplomacy.
Sweden applied for membership in May 2022, together with Finland, both countries pressured by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the time, while Russian troops were annexing more and more Ukrainian territory, Sweden and Finland decided to break with European neutrality and applied for membership.
The two Nordic nations received official candidate status on July 5, 2022, but processes were completed a year apart.
Helsinki joined on April 4, 2023, with the Swedish process being retained by Hungary and Turkey.
Turkey initially presented itself as the main obstacle to Stockholm’s accession, demanding an end to the protection that the Swedish authorities allegedly gave to Kurdish rebels, namely from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), considered terrorists by Ankara.
Sweden refused to give in to this demand and tensions worsened in the following months, with demonstrations in Swedish cities by radicals who burned copies of the Koran on public roads.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan even completely set aside Sweden’s membership of NATO, but one day before the NATO summit in July 2023, he announced that ratification by Turkey would take place as soon as possible.
Ratification only took place on January 23 of this year, leaving Hungary as the only member state to break unanimity in the political-military bloc.
The Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, apparently had no reason to drag out the process and was criticized by his counterparts from other countries for dragging out the process, in what was seen as an attempt to blackmail the other bloc of which Sweden and Hungary are part of: the European Union.
Ratification only took place on February 26th.
[Notícia atualizada às 17h54]
Read Also: It’s official: Sweden is the 32nd member of the NATO transatlantic alliance
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Source: https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/mundo/2516868/adesao-da-suecia-a-nato-torna-alianca-mais-forte
