Military power of NATO & Sweden

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (North Atlantic Alliance) is an intergovernmental military alliance which was signed in Washington on 4 April 1949. NATO is a system of collective security: its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by others countries. NATO's main headquarters are located in Brussels. The following twelve states signed the treaty and became the founding members: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom and United States. The following states joined the treaty after 1949: Greece, Germany, Turkey and Spain. Members who joined after the dissolution of the Soviet Union: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia.

Before and during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, several NATO countries sent army to reinforce the alliance's eastern flank. Alliance had deployed 40,000 troops along its 2,500 kilometres long Eastern flank to deter possible Russian aggression. On 5 July the North Atlantic Alliance members signed off on the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland and formally approved the decisions of the NATO summit.

Finland joined the alliance on 4 April 2023.

Sweden is a country located in Northern Europe with an area of 450,295 km² (land boundries: 2,211 km and costline 3,218 km). The capital of Sweden is Stockholm. The number of inhabitants is 10,385,347.

The Swedish military cooperates closely with the military forces of other Nordic countries through the Nordic Defense Cooperation (NORDEFCO), which consists olso of Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway. Sweden is a signatory of the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy and contributes to CSDP missions and operations. In 2022 Sweden applied for NATO membership and was formally invited to join the alliance at the NATO Summit in Madrid. The inventory of the SAF is comprised of domestically-produced and imported Western weapons systems. The United States is the leading supplier of military hardware.