Sweden officially joins NATO alliance, ending decades of neutrality
Al JazeeraThe Nordic nation applied to join the military alliance in May 2022, but faced delays from Turkey and Hungary. Sweden has officially joined the NATO military alliance, ending decades of neutrality amid soaring concerns about Russia’s aggression in Europe following its invasion of Ukraine. “Unity and solidarity will be Sweden’s guiding lights as a NATO member,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a statement delivered in Washington, DC after a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “We have to face the world as it is not how we sometimes wish it were,” Kristersson said after Hungary became the last NATO member to ratify Sweden’s accession last week. Sweden’s shift away from a neutral stance While Stockholm has been drawing ever closer to NATO over the last two decades, membership marks a clear break with the past, when for more than 200 years, Sweden avoided military alliances and adopted a neutral stance in times of war.