Sweden to apply for NATO membership
- "The government has decided to inform NATO that Sweden wants to become a member of the alliance," Andersson told reporters a day after neighbouring Finland made a similar announcement.
Sweden will apply for membership in NATO as a deterrent against Russian aggression, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said Monday, reversing two centuries of military non-alignment.
"The government has decided to inform NATO that Sweden wants to become a member of the alliance," Andersson told reporters a day after neighbouring Finland made a similar announcement.
"We are leaving one era and beginning another," she said, adding that Sweden's NATO ambassador would "shortly" inform NATO.
Sweden and Finland have both expressed a desire to act in lockstep on NATO membership and submit their applications jointly.
"We expect it shouldn't take more than a year" for the alliance's 30 members to unanimously ratify Sweden's membership application, Andersson said.
The announcement was expected after her Social Democratic party on Sunday backed membership, in a dramatic turnaround after having opposed the idea since the birth of the Western military alliance.
A broad majority in Sweden's parliament is in favour of membership.
Less time to read?
Try Quickreads
-
South Korea approves first homemade Covid-19 vaccine
Health officials in South Korea on Wednesday approved the country's first domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine for people 18 years or older, adding another public health tool in the fight against a prolonged pandemic.
-
Sri Lankans struggle for petrol due to fuel shortage, demonstrations to continue
Sri Lankan doctors and other medical staff as well as teachers will take to the streets on Wednesday to demand that the government solve a severe fuel shortage at the heart of the South Asian country's worst economic crisis in decades. The government, left with only enough fuel to last about a week, on Tuesday restricted supplies to essential services, like trains, buses and the health sector, for two weeks.
-
TTP says no breakthrough in talks with Pak General
The chief of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has said there won't be a dissolution of or surrender by the group even if the peace talks with the Pakistan government succeeds. In a video released by TTP, its chief, Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud, who has been leading the peace talks for the group, revealed that former Director-General of ISI and Core Commander Peshawar (Gen) Faiz Hameed has been representing the Pakistan government.
-
‘Russian Salad’ on cafe menu at NATO summit leaves officials baffled
As international officials and journalists waited for the world leaders at the NATO summit venue on Tuesday, what baffled them was to find 'Russian Salad' on the in-house restaurant menu -- especially as at the summit, Russia was expected to be labelled as a 'security threat' due to its invasion of Ukraine. The dish was also sold out within hours.
-
Zelensky says Putin has become 'a terrorist', urges action| Top updates
Two days after at least 18 people were killed after Russian missiles struck a shopping mall containing more than 1,000 people in the central city of Kremenchuk in Ukraine, president Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Russian president of becoming a “terrorist”. The war between Russia and Ukraine has been going on for over four months now. He further urged Russia's expulsion from the United Nations.
