Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said that Sweden had received assurances from the United States that it would receive support at a time when a possible membership application to the Western military alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), was being considered by the group’s 30 countries. in Washington this Wednesday.
Sweden and neighboring Finland were excluded from NATO during the Cold War, but Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and Russia’s occupation of Ukraine prompted countries to rethink their security policies as NATO membership became increasingly likely. .
Both countries are concerned about a vulnerability in an application process that can take up to a year to be approved by all alliance members.
“Of course I won’t go into details, but I’m sure we now have a US guarantee,” Linde told Swedish television after meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington.
“But these are not tangible security guarantees, but guarantees that you can get if you are a full member of NATO.”
Linde declined to say what assurances she had from Blinken.
“They want to make it clear to Russia that if they take any negative action against Sweden, which they threaten, it will not be something the United States will allow to happen without a response,” he said. .
A US State Department statement released after the meeting said Blinken reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to NATO’s policy of welcoming new members, but made no mention of security guarantees.
source: Noticias
