The Impact of Sweden Joining NATO
Hungary's parliament has finally approved NATO membership for Sweden today, which was the last obstacle for that country to join the alliance. Sweden's entry will now make it 32 nations that belong to the alliance. When NATO was first formed in 1949 as a bulwark against Soviet expansionism there were just 12 countries, largely in western Europe. But the alliance has steadily expanded and strengthened as former Warsaw Pact countries in central and eastern Europe have joined steadily after the Cold War.
Sweden has remained a neutral country and has not participated in any wars in over 200 years, so this move is a major shift in that country's foreign policy as it recognized that Russian is once again threatening its neighbors under Putin. Sweden's last war was against Norway in 1814. After Russian's invasion of Ukraine, public opinion dramatically shifted in Sweden and their Parliament voted by a large majority to join NATO.
Defense spending in Sweden dropped as low as 1.2% of GDP in 2020, but since it sought to join the alliance it has ramped up spending on defense by $8.5 billion so that it now exceeds the 2% of GDP that each member of NATO is supposed to maintain. While Sweden's military is relatively small at 50,000 people, their primary value to the alliance is its strategic location in the Baltic Sea astride Russia's shipping lanes, and its Navy and Air Force as well as cyber capabilities. With Finland also joining NATO, now every country on the Baltic Sea is a member of the alliance.
Putin stated publicly last summer that it didn't concern him that Finland and Sweden were joining the alliance, but said if other NATO countries tried to station troops in those countries or based advanced weapons systems close to Russia in either country then there would be a "response" from Russia. However, Putin stated that one of his primary reasons for invading Ukraine was to halt NATO expansion, and the result has been exactly the opposite.
https://www.meidastouch.com/news/impact-of-sweden-joining-nato
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