What joining NATO means for Sweden

After months of delays, the Hungarian parliament cleared the way for Sweden to join NATO on Monday. With the application for membership in the military alliance, made against the backdrop of the Ukraine war, the Scandinavian country is not only giving up its decades-long non-alignment. It also means profound changes for the military alliance and the geopolitical balance in the region.

What position has Sweden taken so far?

Since the end of the Napoleonic Wars at the beginning of the 19th century, Sweden has pursued a policy of neutrality. In the aftermath of the Cold War, this became a military non-alignment. Although the Scandinavian country supported international peace missions with soldiers, Sweden has not been involved in a war for more than 200 years. The last military conflict was the Swedish-Norwegian War in 1814.

The country forged ever closer ties with NATO over time, joining the Partnership for Peace in around 1994 and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council in 1997. However, full membership in the military alliance was long considered taboo, especially among Sweden’s Social Democrats. The former Social Democratic Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist said in autumn 2021 that he could “guarantee” that he would never take part in an accession process.

Why does Sweden want to join NATO now?

Sweden’s decision to apply for membership was made in spring 2022 in response to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. Parliament voted by a large majority in favor of a Swedish application for membership, which was submitted together with neighboring Finland in May 2022. Finland was able to join NATO in April 2023, while Sweden had to wait due to blockades by Turkey and Hungary.

How strong is the Swedish military?

While Sweden invested heavily in the country’s defense for a long time, according to government figures, spending was massively reduced after the end of the Cold War. In 2020 they only amounted to 1.2 percent of gross domestic product. However, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the government in Stockholm announced that it would increase spending to two percent “as soon as possible.” This year the target should even be exceeded.

The Swedish military has a total of around 50,000 soldiers, around half of whom are reservists. The Swedish Air Force has more than 90 self-developed Gripen fighter jets, and the Swedish Baltic Sea Navy includes several corvettes and submarines.

What other advantages does Sweden’s accession bring to NATO?

Sweden’s entry into NATO is “the final piece of the puzzle on the NATO map in northern Europe,” according to Robert Dalsjo, an analyst at the Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI). Together with the new member Finland, the Baltic Sea is now surrounded by member states, with the exception of Russia; some experts are already talking about the “Nato Sea”.

What does NATO membership mean for Sweden’s defense?

As a member of NATO, the country’s military calculus changes in several important aspects. For a long time, Sweden assumed it had to defend itself, said Jan Henningson, a researcher at FOI. That is changing now. According to expert Dalsjo, the country needs to learn “to be a team player.” “And we have to be prepared for the fact that we want to defend not only Swedish territory, but also allied territory,” he says.

Sweden’s army chief Jonny Lindfors hopes NATO membership will give him a new military starting point in the event of a conflict. “It will be a pretty impressive force that will hopefully have the combined power of 32 countries from Turkey in the south all the way up to Svalbard,” he told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper in December. This will reduce the risk of conflict.