NATO holds flag raising ceremony at HQ to mark accession of Sweden

NATO will hold a flag raising ceremony outside its headquarters in Brussels today to mark the accession of Sweden into the alliance.

Sweden officially joined the bloc on Thursday, a little over two years following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and close to a year since Finland’s accession. Joining NATO gives Sweden, among other benefits, the alliance’s Article 5 collective security guarantee.

With the completion of NATO’s expansion into Scandinavia, expect the alliance to turn to the timeline for Ukraine’s accession. While the alliance has long agreed that that Ukraine should join NATO, the possibility of accession in the middle of its ongoing war with Russia is very slim. Instead, expect in the medium-term that NATO continues to provide extensive defense assistance short of a full-scale military commitment to repelling the invasion. In the long-term, however, if the war ends and Russia is fully repelled or Ukraine maintains at least some portion of its territorial sovereignty, it is likely NATO would be quick to approve Ukraine’s accession as a deterrent against further Russian aggression. This is likely but not guaranteed as the risk that Russia attacks Ukraine will always be present given that the two countries share a lengthy border with one another.