Sweden will complete its ‘long farewell to neutrality’ with Nato accession

For Swedes it means a dramatic change of national identity, while the alliance gets greater control of the Baltic Sea

Just a few short months ago, Sweden’s Nato membership seemed a very long way from being a done deal. Having submitted its application to join in May 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it seemed at times as though Stockholm might be left hanging interminably. While Finland, which had applied to join the alliance at the same time as its neighbour, became a member at record speed last April, Sweden got stuck in a diplomatic quagmire.

Last summer a series of Qur’an burnings in Sweden inflamed ties with Turkey, making a “yes” from Ankara look unlikely and at times inconceivable. And as recently as September, Viktor Orbán’s government was embroiled in a public war of words with Sweden over criticism of Hungary’s democracy and teaching in Swedish schools. Late last month, after Turkey’s parliament had given Sweden the green light, the Hungarian prime minister was still pushing for negotiations in a public letter to his Swedish counterpart, Ulf Kristersson.

Now all that is history. The almost two-year waiting game ended last week when Hungary’s ruling party, Fidesz, announced that the issue would be raised in parliament. By Friday, Kristersson and Orbán were standing side by side unveiling a military deal enabling Hungary to buy four Gripen planes from Sweden and declaring that while they still did not agree on everything, they were “prepared to die for each other”. On Monday the Hungarian parliament finally voted in favour of the Scandinavian country’s membership.