Sweden on Thursday became the 32nd member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation with the handover of documents at a ceremony in Washington, a historic move that Secretary of State Antony Blinken said marked a “strategic debacle” by Russia.
After being ratified by the other 31 alliance members, Blinken accepted the accession documents from Sweden’s prime minister, saying, “Good things come to those who wait.”
Regarding Sweden’s entry into NATO, Blinken remarked, “I think if you step back and think of where we were three years ago, none of this was foreordained.”
He made reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin when he said, “There is no clearer example than today of the strategic debacle that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has become for Russia.”
Reacting, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson hailed his country’s entry into NATO as a “victory for freedom,” as it turned the page on two centuries of non-alignment following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The accession “is a victory for freedom today. Sweden has made a free, democratic, sovereign and united choice to join NATO,” he said.
