Sweden officially joined NATO on Thursday after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine spurred it to rethink its defense policy and abandon its long held position of neutrality.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson formally handed over accession documents to the US State Department in Washington, DC, the final step of a months-long process to gain the approval of all members to allow his country to become the alliance’s 32nd member.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken received the documents, which he said were the product of “nearly two years of tireless diplomacy” by NATO members. The documents are put into a vault at the State Department, which serves as the treaty depositary for NATO.
Stockholm dropped years of military non-alignment when it applied for NATO membership alongside Finland in the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“We’ll closely monitor what Sweden does in the aggressive military bloc, how it will implement its membership in practice,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a weekly press briefing.
She said Moscow’s “military and technical” retaliation would depend on the types of NATO weapons and units Sweden deploys, as well as the types of drills and strategies it adopts as a member of the military alliance.
“Based on that, we’ll develop our response policy, as well as military and technical steps, to stop the threats to Russia’s national security,” Zakharova added.
Her statement echoes Russia’s Embassy in Stockholm, which warned earlier Tuesday that Moscow’s response was contingent on the “conditions and scale of Sweden’s integration into NATO, including the possible deployment of NATO units, strike systems and weapons.”
Last year, Russia’s ambassador in Stockholm said that NATO’s new members would become “a legitimate target for Russian retaliatory measures.”
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Sweden officially abolishes the policy of armed neutrality it had maintained for 210 years, which had uniquely kept Sweden out of innumerable European wars, two World Wars, the Cold War, and every other military conflict since **1814**
I'm sure Sweden brings a lot of valuable warfare expertise and military hardware and will definitely not just increase US military spending...right?
@CheeseTerryRepublican2yrs2Y
Sweden is one of the largest weapons exporter per capita in the world. Plus having its own fighter jets that has been exported to other countries. Plus having submarines that US forces were unable to detect in military exercises for years... so don't speak about things you don't know about.
@BuzzardPeteRepublican2yrs2Y
You can criticize NATO all you want (and believe me I will,) but think it possible that Russia's actions are what drove Sweden into the organization?
Sometimes you join an armed gang of thugs to protect yourself from the other armed gang of thugs.
@JovialThirdPartyGreen2yrs2Y
NATO is begging for war with Russia. Why is that?
NATO is about defense and trade, not offense.
Not if you are Moscow. I don't want to defend Putin and his actions in Ukraine, but a military alliance whose sole purpose is anti-Russia, all the way up to Moscow's front door, is seen as a threat by him and has been for a long time.
We think of all our NATO partners as good guys and can't imagine that they would attack Russia. But not that long ago Germany did, and Russia lost 20 million people in that war.
They may see countries doing military exercises on Russia's border as maybe harmless but don't see a reason to count on that. If it were us, if a military allian… Read more
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
What would your personal reaction be if your country was the target of 'revenge' threats for joining an alliance like NATO?
@9KNMPWM2yrs2Y
I would feel scared and threatened and be ready for a defense
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
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