Sweden Set To Officially Join NATO | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Michael Whittaker.

    After more than a year of negotiations, Sweden is set to become the 32nd member of NATO.

    The Nordic country broke with nearly 2 centuries of neutrality in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and formally applied for NATO membership in May of that year, alongside neighboring Finland, which also abandoned its longstanding policy of neutrality to join the alliance.

    Joining NATO requires the unanimous consent of all current members - while most NATO nations were quick to approve the applications, Finland and Sweden both faced opposition from Hungary and Turkey. Pressure from the rest of the alliance and various concessions appear to have put those objections to rest. Finland formally joined NATO in April 2023. Turkey approved Sweden's membership bid last month and on Monday the Hungarian parliament also approved it.

    "The parliaments of all NATO member states have now voted in favor of Swedish accession to NATO." Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said. "Sweden stands ready to shoulder its responsibility for Euro-Atlantic security."

    Sweden is expected to officially join the organization in a ceremony sometime this week, after all the necessary paperwork has been finalized.

    Turkey previously accused the two Scandinavian nations of being soft on Kurdish militants, who have been in conflict with Turkey's government for decades. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appears to have backed down in exchange for increased weapons sales to his country - including the transfer of American made F-16 fighter jets.

    Hungary's objections appear to have been a response to past Swedish criticism of the Hungarian government under Viktor Orbán. Hungary's shift in policy also coincides with an arms deal - Hungary purchased four Swedish fighter jets days before ratifying its NATO bid.


    The expansion of NATO has been a major point of contention with Russia - one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's stated reasons for invading Ukraine was to prevent the country from joining the Western military bloc and moving its forces to the Russian border. Finland, which, like Ukraine, was also once part of the Russian Empire, has an 830 mile long land border with Russia, and with the accession of Sweden and Finland the alliance will almost totally encircle the Baltic Sea, where the Russian port of St. Petersburg strategic exclave of Kaliningrad are located.

    While Russia hasn't taken direct military action against either nation, relations have cooled considerably between it and the formally neutral nations. Last year the Russian ambassador to Sweden said the country had become a "legitimate target for Russian retaliatory measures" and Finland closed its border with Russia.

    "When it comes to Russia, the only thing we can expect is that they will not like that Sweden is becoming a NATO member," Kristersson said. "What they do in addition to that, we cannot know. We are prepared for all sorts of things."

poll#211

26 days after the October 7th Terror attacks on Israel, where over 1400 Jewish men, women and children were gruesomely murdered, and hundreds more made hostage: Should the Biden /Harris administration finally state that the administration's primary Middle East negotiating partner, Iran, is behind the funding and strategy of the aggressors, the Hamas Terrorists, or continue to take the more moderate position of "Don't," which is clearly not working?

  Yes, name Iran as the funding /strategy culprit, and begin to enforce the President Trump era sanctions to END Iran's ability to prosecute this war against Israel and the United States.

  No, Iran is a valuable partner in the motives of the Biden / Harris administration, and must not be named as the culprit and our enemy.

  I have larger concerns just to survive in this economy.

336 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?

poll#209

In the minds of many, since January 20, 2021, the World has become far less safe in every theater of conflict, beginning with the attack of Israel by Iran /Hamas, so the question becomes: What caused this Worldwide calamity of extreme geopolitical dysfunction, and what will correct it?

  Joe Biden is the cause of this frightening Worldwide situation, and it will end when a Republican is elected president.

  This delayed Worldwide dysfunction and constant conflict is all Donald Trump's fault, as it is with everything that occurs going forward, and long before the man ever became the 45th president..

  Joe Biden is the "root cause" of this frightening Worldwide situation, and it will end when former President Donald John Trump is elected president.

  In the imitable words of Alfred E. Newman: "What, me worry?"

436 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?