Hungary agrees to Sweden joining NATO
Sweden's upcoming accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), An international military alliance for the collective defense of member countries is pushing Russia into the Baltic Sea. And it has everything to do with the war in Ukraine.
1 of 2 File photo from August 2020 shows NATO military training in Sweden. Photo: Antonia Sehlstedt/AP File photo from August 2020 shows NATO military training in Sweden. — Photo: Antonia Sehlstedt/AP
But what does that mean in practice?
As consequence, Russian President Vladimir Putin is achieving exactly what he sought to avoid at the start of the war: expanding NATO, Western leaders say.
The entire Baltic Sea coast will be part of the alliance area with the exception of the coasts of Russia and Kaliningrad. In other words, in the event of a Russian attack, it would be easier to defend the Baltic countries, for example. The Baltic Sea is also of strategic importance from a commercial perspective: it is a sea access route to the ports of Saint Petersburg and Kaliningrad, both in Russia.
“As for Russia, we can only expect that they will not like it if Sweden joins NATO,” said Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. “What they will do beyond that we cannot know. We are prepared for all possible situations.”
On February 19, Thomas Nilsson, head of the Swedish foreign intelligence agency Must, said that “the situation…” [na Ucrânia, após a invasão da Rússia] continued to deteriorate throughout 2023.”
“With NATO membership we will be able to fight a revanchist and unpredictable Russia,” he said.
In 2023, a Russian speaker said that Sweden's entry into the alliance was still a possibility at the time, that this would bring “negative” consequences and that Moscow would respond with “anticipated” and “planned” measures.
While Sweden has increased cooperation with NATO in recent decades and participated in operations in countries such as Afghanistan, its membership is intended to streamline defense planning and cooperation on the alliance's northern flank.
“NATO gains a serious and capable member and removes a factor of uncertainty in northern Europe,” said Robert Dalsjo, senior analyst at the Swedish Defense Research Agency, a government think tank.
For him, Sweden is “the last piece of the puzzle on NATO’s map of Northern Europe.”
With joining the organization, the major change is related to Article 5 of the NATO Treaty. According to this, an armed attack against one country of the organization is considered an attack against all including the United States.
The accessions of Sweden and Finland are NATO's most significant since it added members from Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
2 of 2 Sweden joins NATO Photo: g1 Sweden joins NATO Photo: g1
Sweden is already investigating a possible conflict
Sweden has already shown how it can help NATO in practice:
- The alliance will have an easier time corralling the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea and monitoring the movement of nuclear submarines that need to maneuver on the open seas in the region.
- Combined, the Swedish armed forces can mobilize around 50,000 soldiers.
- The country has more than 90 Saab JAS 39 Gripen fighters, and the sea fleet has corvettes and submarines.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson also said in January that his country was ready to supply troops to NATO forces in Latvia.
Following the formal procedures, Sweden will officially become the 32nd member of the alliance (see full list below).
The Swedes will also be full members of the NATO Council, the alliance's main decisionmaking body, with veto rights like Hungary, which has so far prevented the country from joining the organization.
However, Deborah Solomon of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society explained in an interview with the BBC that the country could lose its role as a peacemaker and leader in the fight for nuclear disarmament. This is because the US, for example, pressured several members of the organization not to take part in the UN disarmament negotiations in 2019.
Hungary postponed approval for 18 months
For some analysts, Hungary's postponement of the approval was a strategy to negotiate with the European Union to release billions of dollars in frozen funds.
Others pointed out the reason Close to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğanwho justified his reluctance for security reasons.
In any case, most believe that Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's visit to Hungary last week accelerated negotiations. During the trip, the Hungarian government announced the purchase of four Swedish fighter jets.
At the time, Orbán said the fighter jets would increase the country's military capabilities and improve Hungary's participation in NATO military operations.
At the beginning of the parliamentary session this Monday, Orbán praised Kristersson's visit, which he said had contributed to the construction of “a fair and respectful relationship between the two countries” beyond “differences of opinion”.
“Sweden's accession to NATO will strengthen Hungary's security,” he added.
NATO (short for North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is an alliance of 32 countries, including the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom and France.
The organization was founded in 1949, during the socalled Cold War, under the leadership of the USA as an opposition to the defunct Soviet Union. During the Cold War, countries aligned with the United States were members of NATO, and the Soviet Union had a similar alliance, the Warsaw Pact.
After the dissolution of the communist bloc in 1991, many Warsaw Pact countries joined NATO including Poland, whose capital Warsaw gave its name to the old alliance.
Since then, NATO has operated primarily as an alliance protecting the economic interests of its members, with some exceptions, such as when it acted directly in Libya in the conflict over the overthrow of dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
See the list of NATO members:
- Albania (2009)
- Germany (1955)
- Belgium (1949)
- Bulgaria (2004)
- Canada (1949)
- Czech Republic (1999)
- Croatia (2009)
- Denmark (1949)
- Slovakia (2004)
- Slovenia (2004)
- Spain (1982)
- United States (1949)
- Estonia (2004)
- Finland (2023)
- France (1949)
- Greece (1952)
- Netherlands (1949)
- Hungary (1999)
- Iceland (1949)
- Italy (1949)
- Latvia (2004)
- Lithuania (2004)
- Luxembourg (1949)
- North Macedonia (2020)
- Montenegro (2017)
- Norway (1949)
- Poland (1999)
- Portugal (1949)
- United Kingdom (1949)
- Romania (2004)
- Turkiye (1952)