The Social Democrats, Sweden’s ruling party, will decide on May 15 its stance on applying for membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), party secretary Tobias Baudin said on Monday. “What the decision is going to be is not decided yet today. Our message is that on May 15, there will be a decision for the party leadership to take a position on,” Baudin told Swedish public radio service SR.
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As Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine, which it launched on February 24, and which has prompted countries like Sweden and the neighbouring Finland to re-think on abandoning their long-standing neutrality and possibly join NATO, the Social Democrats will hold three key meetings this week to gather party members’ opinion on the issue; the final decision will be taken by the leadership at the weekend.
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“I want to have that on the table before I make a decision,” Magdalena Andersson, the prime minister, said a day ago, referring to a report which will be submitted after a parallel, all-party security policy meeting scheduled for May 13.
Also this week, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto is expected to announce his support for a membership application.
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If both, or either decide to apply, the application will have to be ratified by Parliament of each of the 30 NATO member states, of which 28 are in Europe, with the remaining two being the United States and Canada. Though getting the signature of all 30 member states may take up to one year, Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of the military alliance, said in March he would ‘welcome’ Sweden and Finland, and even ‘fast-track’ their applications.
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Russia, however, is likely to take an issue as one of the reasons for its invasion of Ukraine is said to be the former’s aspiration to join NATO. Under the alliance’s rules, if one member state is attacked by a third party, all other members have to help the latter.
(With Reuters inputs)
