Sweden has officially signed an application indicating its interest in joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO ending many months of back and forth.
This was coming despite strong opposition from Turkey and disagreement with Russia over the move.
Africa Today News, New York can confirm that signing the application is a formal step by Stockholm toward joining the military alliance.
The signing also ended years of military neutrality and this move, according to Swedish, became imperative following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Read Also: NATO: Putin Threatens Finland’s ‘Mistake’ Of Joining
‘It feels very big, very serious, and it feels like we have arrived at a conclusion which is the best for Sweden,’ Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said on Tuesday after signing the application.
She said that having signed the document, it may take up to one year before their application is considered.
‘Now this week, this application will be submitted, together with Finland, in a day or so, and then it will be processed by NATO.’
Russian President Vladimir Putin had said he was not bothered about the two nations joining NATO, adding that the move is not a threat to his country, but warned that military expansion into the territory will “certainly cause our response.”
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Swedish and Finnish delegations should not bother coming to Turkey to try to convince Turkey to approve the country’s NATO membership. He accused the two countries of dinning with terrorists and even allowing them (terrorists) to speak in the Parliaments.
Meanwhile, Africa Today News, New York had earlier reported that Putin minced no words when he blasted his Finnish counterpart about the disadvantages of becoming a NATO member which would be “a huge mistake” for the Nation.
A statement from Kremlin quoted the Russian leader as stressing that “the end of the traditional policy of military neutrality would be a mistake since there is no threat to Finland’s security.”
Russia has already cut off its ten percent electricity supply to Finland following its plan to join NATO.
But Putin kicked against such move, saying “such a change in the country’s political orientation can have a negative impact on Russian-Finnish relations developed over years in a spirit of good neighbourliness and cooperation between partners.”
Russia had on February 24, invaded Ukraine over the same political issues and this has swung political and public opinion in Finland and neighbouring Sweden, who have indicated interest in joining NATO.