Sweden’s Flag Is Raised at NATO Headquarters to Cement Its Place as 32nd Member
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Sweden’s flag was raised at NATO headquarters on Monday, cementing the Nordic country’s place as the 32nd member two years after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine persuaded its reluctant public to seek membership in the alliance.
Under a steady rain, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Crown Princess Victoria and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg looked on as two soldiers raised the blue banner emblazoned with a yellow cross among the official circle of national flags at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, AP reported.
Sweden set aside decades of post-World War II neutrality when it formally joined NATO on March 7. The neighboring nation of Finland had already joined in April 2023 in another historic move ending years of military nonalignment.
Finland’s defense ministry welcomed “our brothers and sisters in arms,” saying on X, formerly Twitter, that “now we stand at the beginning of a new era. Together and with other allies in peace, in crisis and beyond.”
Sweden’s membership completes a strategic ring of NATO territory around the Baltic Sea. The country now benefits from the alliance’s collective security guarantee — Article 5 of its treaty — a vow that an attack on one of them will be met by a response from them all.
“We have chosen you, and you have chosen us. All for one, and one for all,” Kristersson said, and he vowed that his country would uphold the values enshrined in NATO’s founding Washington Treaty.
The flag-raising ceremony came as 20,000 troops from 13 countries conduct NATO drills in the high north of new member Sweden as well as its neighbors Finland and Norway.
The Nordic drill is part of wider exercises called Steadfast Defender 24, NATO’s largest in decades, with up to 90,000 troops taking part over several months to show any adversary that the alliance can defend all of its territory from North America up to its borders with Russia.
“We are humble, but we are also proud. We know the expectations for Sweden are high, but we also have high expectations for ourselves,” Kristersson told reporters minutes before the ceremony. “We will share burdens, responsibilities and risks with our allies.”
Sweden brings to the table well-trained and -equipped armed forces. The country has been working in close partnership with NATO during military exercises over the years. Sweden also meets NATO’s defense spending target of 2 percent of gross domestic product.
Polish President Andrzej Duda on Monday called on other members of the NATO alliance to raise their spending on defense to 3 percent of GDP.
