Before this, Sweden had blockless status.
Sweden may join to NATO in June of this year. At the end of May, a meeting of the ruling committee of the Social Democrats is to be held, at which a decision can be made to support the country's membership in NATO, reports the Chronicle.info with reference to TSN.
As noted, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has already decided to join NATO. Her government intends to apply to Sweden at the Madrid Summit of the Security Alliance at the end of June.
In addition, the newspaper Aftonbladet reported that the Swedish Social Democrats are convening an extraordinary meeting of the ruling committee of the party on May 24, at which a decision may be made to support NATO membership. The meeting, according to the newspaper, will be the culmination of six weeks of internal party dialogue.
«It remains to be seen whether a decision will be made [at this meeting], but it is clear that much will depend on it», the message says.
It should be noted that the non-bloc status of Sweden, by which it avoided joining international military alliances during World War I, World War II and the Cold War, was a major part of the Social Democrats' policy. It probably reached its highest level under Prime Minister Olof Palm, who was a clear critic of the foreign policy of the USA and the USSR.
Recall that in early February, the Swedish government officially announced that Stockholm would refrain from applications to join NATO.
It is worth noting that after Putin declared war on Ukraine Finland also signed a petition for joining NATO. Although back in January Helsinki stated that they did not plan to join NATO. In turn, Vladimir Dzhabarov, Deputy Chairman of the International Committee of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, said that Finland's entry into NATO will provoke Russia to take retaliatory measures.