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NATO

TIMETABLE: Sweden’s big day for Nato membership

Sweden will today take the formal decision to apply to join the Nato security alliance, ending 200 years of neutrality or non-alignment. Here is the timetable for all of the day's key events.

Published: 15 May 2022 13:51 CEST
Updated: 16 May 2022 09:42 CEST
Flags flutter in the wind outside NATO headquarters in Brussels, Feb. 7th, 2022.
Flags outside NATO headquarters in Brussels, Feb. 7th, 2022. With Finland and Sweden taking steps to join NATO, the list of “neutral” countries in Europe appears poised to shrink. AP Photo/Olivier Matthys/TT
  • 9am (CET). The Finnish parliament meets to discuss the decision taken by the government on Sunday. No other parliamentary business is scheduled. According to the Hufvudstadsbladet newspaper the debate will end in a vote on joining Nato, with the government’s ministers taking a decision shortly afterwards. A formal request to join Nato can then be submitted. The country’s president and prime minister announced on Sunday that Finland would apply to join Nato. 
  • 10.30am. A debate takes place in Sweden’s parliament, which will discuss the conclusions of the Swedish government’s ‘security policy analysis group’. The debate is expected to take about three hours. It will start with a 20 minute speech from Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, after which the leaders of other parties will be invited to speak. Unlike the debate in the Finnish parliament, Sweden’s debate will not end with a vote. 

  • Afternoon: Sweden’s defence minister Peter Hultqvist confirmed to SVT on Monday morning that Sweden’s prime minister, Magdalena Andersson would call a government meeting where the decision on whether to join Nato will be made. 
  • 3pm. Sweden’s Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Ulf Kristersson, leader of the Moderate Party, are to hold a joint press conference. Will this be when the Nato decision is announced, or a preparation for it? 
  • 4.30pm. General Micael Byden, Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed forces, to hold a press conference. 
  • Afternoon/Evening: Finland to send in requests to join Nato. 
  • This week: Sweden to send request to join Nato. Hultqvist told SVT that it was not certain the formal request to join Nato would be sent in on Monday, but according to Expressen, officials at Sweden’s foreign ministry have been drafting the text of the formal request for weeks, meaning it is now complete and ready to be submitted. According to Sweden’s TT newswire requests will be submitted “some time this week” to Nato’s headquarters in Brussels by Axel Wernhoff, Sweden’s ambassador to Nato. 

Follow the national Nato debate with The Local’s podcast, Sweden in Focus. 

Nato will assess the applications in May/June. According to Dagens Nyheter and SVT it could take Nato only a matter of days to assess the two countries’ expressions of interest and then offer Sweden a formal invitation to join the alliance. 

Finland’s foreign minister Pekka Haavisto said on April 13th that the process “could take four months, it could take a year.”

Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in April that he believed that the process could go rapidly.

Finland included a handy list of all the stages in its security policy analysis here. 

READ MORE: 

Finland confirms it will apply to join NATO as Sweden set to follow

KEY POINTS: Five things to know about Sweden and Nato

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SWEDEN AND GERMANY

What’s on the agenda for German chancellor’s visit to Sweden?

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is in Sweden to discuss security and business competitiveness with his Nordic colleagues on a two-day visit.

Published: 13 May 2024 14:25 CEST
What's on the agenda for German chancellor's visit to Sweden?

Scholz was to visit the Stockholm headquarters of telecommunications giant Ericsson on Monday, accompanied by the prime ministers of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

They were to “discuss security policy issues such as hybrid threats, civil preparedness and new technologies,” the Swedish government said in a statement.

A press conference was to follow just before 6pm.

“At a dinner that evening, discussions will centre on continued support to Ukraine,” the government said, as Russian troops launched a major ground operation against Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region amid Kyiv’s struggles with Western aid delays.

The Nordic countries and Germany have been among Ukraine’s biggest donors since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

Berlin is the world’s second biggest donor to Ukraine, giving 14.5 billion euros so far, according to the Kiel Institute.

“Security policy and the upcoming Nato summit will top the agenda,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wrote in a piece published in financial daily Dagens Industri on Monday.

“Financial competitiveness issues” will also be discussed, he said, noting that “the Nordic region wants to play a key role in efforts to strengthen the European economy”.

On Tuesday, Kristersson and Scholz were scheduled to hold bilateral talks and visit the Norrsken Foundation, which supports young growth companies active in the green and digital transition.

Afterwards the two leaders were to sign a “strategic innovation partnership” between Germany and Sweden.

The visit was to be their first bilateral meeting since Sweden joined Nato in March 2024.

The next Nato summit will take place July 9th-11th in Washington.

“Sweden has, and must have, a clear international voice in the world,” Kristersson wrote in Dagens Industri.

The Scandinavian country has enjoyed decades of strong cooperation with Nordic and Baltic countries, and with intensified collaboration “with two other Baltic Sea countries, Poland and Germany, our region will be safer and stronger”, he said.

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