Sweden–NATO relations
Bilateral relations / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sweden has been a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) since 7 March 2024.[1]
Before applying for NATO membership, Sweden had maintained a policy of neutrality in military affairs since the Napoleonic Wars, after which Sweden adopted a policy of "non-alignment in peace and neutrality in war". The country was neutral in both world wars—though it cooperated with both Germany and Allied nations on various occasions during World War II—and chose not to join NATO when it was founded in 1949. In the mid-1990s, after the Cold War, the country acceded to NATO's Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme, and the European Union (EU). EU membership in practice ended the country's non-alignment, as it included the adoption of common foreign and security policy and, from 2009 onwards, a mutual defence clause. However, public support for NATO accession remained low.
The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine spurred a shift in public opinion, prompting Sweden to apply for NATO membership alongside Finland on 18 May 2022.