The Swedish Government formally decided yesterday to join the country in NATO, as announced by the Minister of Energy, Ebba Busch, at a press conference. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom already traveled to Washington on Wednesday to present the accession documents in a ceremony scheduled for late Thursday afternoon. In this way, Sweden immediately becomes the 32nd member of the Atlantic Alliance.
As a member of NATO, Sweden, with its state-of-the-art submarines and Saab 39 Gripen fighter jets, will be a crucial link between the Atlantic and Baltic states in times of crisis.
After years of warning Sweden and Finland against joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and breaking its long tradition of neutrality, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has achieved what President Vladimir Putin sought to avoid: an expansion of Alliance, Western leaders said.
The secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, one of President Vladimir Putin's strong men, said yesterday that NATO's latest military maneuvers look like a rehearsal for an armed confrontation with Russia, the Interfax news agency reported. The Nordic Response Exercise, which is taking place in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland and involves 20,000 soldiers from thirteen countries.
Patrushev said the exercises, which will last until March 14, are destabilizing and increasing tensions.
