Sweden is set to officially become a NATO member after Hungary finally gave its approval.
Hungary’s parliament ratified the bid on Monday following months of delays. 188 Hungarian politicians voted to back Sweden’s membership while six voted against it.
Reacting to the development, Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said; “Today is a historic day… Sweden stands ready to shoulder its responsibility for Euro-Atlantic security.
“Sweden is now leaving 200 years of neutrality and nonalignment behind us. It is a big step. We must take that seriously. But it is also a very natural step that we are taking.
“Membership of NATO means that we now join a large number of democracies that work together for peace and freedom. A new home where neighbors cooperate for safety and a group of countries that, in practice, we have belonged for a very long time.”
Speaking about Russia’s potential reaction, Kristersson told a press conference: “The only thing we can expect with any certainty is that they don’t like Sweden becoming a member of NATO, nor Finland”.
Going forward, “Nordic countries will have a common defence for the first time in 500 years… we remain friends, and we become allies,” he added.
Sweden submitted its application to join NATO along with Finland in May 2022, three months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Finland’s application was ratified relatively quickly, and it joined the alliance in April 2023. However, Sweden’s bid was held up by Turkey and Hungary.
Turkey claimed that Sweden was harboring Kurdish groups, which it considers terrorists. Turkey eventually approved the NATO bid in January after Sweden introduced new anti-terror laws.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an intergovernmental military alliance formed in 1949 by several North American and European countries to provide collective defense against potential threats, particularly from the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
With Sweden’s accession, NATO will count 32 countries among its members.