Swedish FM rules out deployment of permanent NATO bases in Sweden
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The Swedish Foreign Minister states that NATO will work in Sweden, but the country does not want any permanent NATO bases.
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Sweden's Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Brussels, on Monday, January 22, 2024. (AP)
Stockholm rejects the stationing of NATO bases in the country, Sweden's Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom stated in an interview for Turkish media today.
“Of course, NATO institutions will work in Sweden, but we do not want permanent bases for the alliance," he stressed.
Sweden joins NATO
Sweden officially became the 32nd NATO member on March 7, ending two centuries of formal non-alignment and concluding two years of excruciating diplomacy as the war in Ukraine rages on.
The official accession became possible after the Hungarian parliament, a week before Sweden joined, voted to approve the Nordic nation's bid to join the NATO alliance.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson was in Washington, where Secretary of State Antony Blinken was to ceremonially receive the ratification paperwork following a hard-fought campaign to get the necessary approval from all NATO countries.
The accession "is a victory for freedom today. Sweden has made a free, democratic, sovereign and united choice to join NATO," he said at a ceremony in Washington with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Blinken, on his part, called the move a "strategic debacle" for Russia, adding that "good things come to those who wait."
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg expressed that this was a "historic day" for Sweden to take its "rightful place" in providing an equal say in NATO policies.
He highlighted that following more than 200 years of non-alignment, the ally is now protected under "Article 5, the ultimate guarantee of allies' freedom and security."
The Swedish government declared that it would conduct a special meeting to ratify admission.
