Sweden is not a member of the international military alliance NATO. Nevertheless, Sweden is this week the host nation for a major conference between the NATO nations. On that occasion, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden granted an audience to NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg.
The audience lasted just under 15 minutes and Stoltenberg was able to tell the press that he and the Swedish monarch has discussed the security situation in Northern Europe. Stoltenberg, who has previously been Norwegian prime minister, has met the Swedish king many times before and they have a good relationship.
The meeting took place on the same day, October 26th 2021, as Russia’s foreign minister during a visit to Norway said that NATO was not Russia’s friend during a meeting in the Barents Council. Bi-annual ministerial meetings in the Barents Council rotate between the member countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the European Commission. Nine countries have observer status. The Barents cross-border regional cooperation was initiated in January 1993, a year after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Secretary General of NATO is currently visiting Sweden and Finland together with a delegation from NATO’s highest decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council. On Tuesday, the delegation also visited the Swedish Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Defence, the Minister of the Interior and the Swedish Parliament. NAC’s visit to Sweden ends in the Stockholm archipelago where the naval exercise SWENEX takes place, which is a collaboration between the Swedish and Finnish Armed Forces.
In 1949, Sweden chose not to join NATO and instead declared a security policy focused on non-alignment in peace and neutrality in war. Since the 1990s, and the end of the Cold War, however, there has been ongoing discussion in Sweden around NATO with the country joining NATO’s Partnership for Peace in 1994. In December 2006, Sweden was invited to join the NATO Response Force.
While the governing parties in Sweden have opposed membership, they have participated in NATO-led missions in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Libya. According to a poll conducted by Sifo in June 2016, more Swedes are against a Swedish NATO membership than in favour of one.
