There is one more country in NATO (video)

Sweden officially became the 32nd member of NATO. On March 7 in Washington, its Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson presented his American counterpart Antony Blinken with the signed documents on Sweden’s accession.

This is the last formal step in the procedure, Sweden is now considered a full member of the North Atlantic Alliance after almost two hundred years of neutrality.

Yesterday afternoon, European time, the US State Department confirmed that the last – Hungarian – instrument of ratification on Sweden’s accession had arrived in Washington. After this, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg officially invited Sweden to membership, and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who, together with the Foreign Minister arrived in Washington in advance, signed the accession documents.

This marked the end of Sweden’s long-suffering path to NATO. She expected to complete it together with Finland, but in the end it dragged on for more than a year.

At first, the main obstacle was Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who formally put forward claims to Sweden for political asylum for his political opponents and Kurdish leaders, but the real reason was Erdogan’s bargaining with the United States over the acquisition of F-16 fighters.

Then Hungary suddenly became an obstacle, without Budapest making specific demands. Despite repeated promises “not to be last” in the ratification process, Hungary still completed the process after Turkey and even then found a way to further delay Sweden’s eventual entry into NATO.