So Sweden is now an official member of NATO, the military defense alliance.
As the 32nd country to join the alliance, Sweden will be protected under Article 5 – the ultimate guarantee of allie’s freedom and security.
To the outside world, this might not be that significant. But for Sweden, March 7th 2024 is a day that will be recorded as one of the most momentous in history.
By becoming a member of NATO, Sweden ends over 200 years of official non alignment. This neutrality stretched back to the Napoleonic wars.
Sweden joining NATO was inconceivable just over two years ago, and the Swedish population had little appetite to join a military alliance.
The country remained neutral in both World Wars but when Russian troops began marching toward Kyiv in February 2022, Sweden – and neighbour Finland – became alert to the threat Moscow could pose to nearby countries outside the alliance.
And everything changed.
Finland joined NATO in April 2023, and Sweden, after lots of head-butting with Turkey and Hungary, formally joined yesterday.
It is currently unknown how the membership will affect the lives of Swedes. Hopefully, not noticeably.
But it was very apparent on Tuesday when two American bomb planes, B52 and B1B, flew at a low altitude over central Stockholm – that things have changed in this formally-neutral country in the north.
Watching the Swedes 