It was a de facto member as long as NATO existed. Now it also is a de jure member too, a big nothing-burger.
NATO membership comes with guarantees and responsibilities.
The guarantee is that if Sweden would be attacked, other members will support with their troops. The responsibility is that Sweden must expand their military.
The former won't happen. Sweden is sorrounded by friendly countries. The second is a downside for Sweden.
So globally it is a nothing burger and locally it is a negative development for Sweden.
Guys will see this and say "hell yea"
hell yea
I don't like the expansion of NATO, but due to Russia's recent imperialism, Sweden's and Finland's reactions are completely reasonable. A much healthier alternative would have been actually advancing towards an integrated European defense system involving EU members, with a door open to certain neighbours such as Norway, but it's pretty hard to do that when the political groups that could actually promote that alternative are schizophrenically tolerating positions such as "I'm a pacifist, so I'm advocating for my own country's disarmament despite my neighbours starting wars very recently" and "if Ukraine didn't want to get invaded, they shouldn't have sought guarantees against Russian aggression from third countries".
Fuck the tankies in here and praise UN and Sweden.
Russia locked out of the Balkan Sea now?
The Balkan wars were tough on Sweden, being so geographically close to the conflict.
NATO coming for the Baltic peninsula next
Swedes still dream about dominium maris baltici
Huzzah! Welcome to the team, Sweden. We can all be self defense buddies together! =D
World News
News from around the world!
Rules:
-
Please only post links to actual news sources, no tabloid sites, etc
-
No NSFW content
-
No hate speech, bigotry, propaganda, etc