Sweden’s formal military integration into NATO has ended, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said.
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“The final conference on NATO integration in Stockholm ended with the signing of a joint declaration by the Commander-in-Chief of the Swedish Army, Mikel Biden, and the Supreme Allied Commander for Transformation, Philippe Lavigne, on the end of Sweden’s military integration into NATO,” he said at a joint press conference with Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina. The broadcast was conducted on the website of the Swedish government.
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Kristersson also noted that, together with the corresponding process in Finland, this is one of the fastest integration processes in NATO history. He called it a “big deal.”
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Sweden officially became the 32nd NATO member on March 7. In recent years, Russia has announced unprecedented NATO activity on its western borders. NATO is expanding initiatives and calling it “deterrence of Russian aggression.”
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Earlier, the Russian embassy in Sweden published an article on its website stating that after Sweden and Finland join NATO, the total length of the Russian-NATO borders will almost double, this will not improve the security of Europe – new members of the hostile bloc “will become a legitimate target for response measures from Russia.”
