Sweden clears final NATO hurdle with Hungary vote

What happened?

Hungary's parliament overwhelmingly approved Sweden's accession to NATO on Monday, clearing Stockholm's final obstacle to joining the Western alliance.

Who said what?

Sweden is "now leaving 200 years of neutrality and non-alignment behind us," said Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. "It is a big step, we must take that seriously. But it is also a very natural step."

The commentary

Thanks to his invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin "now finds himself faced with an enlarged and motivated NATO, one that is no longer dreaming of a permanent peace," The New York Times said. Having Sweden and Finland in the alliance will make it "much easier to bottle up" Russian's navy in the Baltic Sea and protect NATO's northeastern flank.

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What next?

Sweden's accession will be official once its paperwork is filed with the U.S. government, the depository of the North Atlantic Treaty. Then, with Stockholm's highly capable air force and navy and Baltic Sea assets, "many within the alliance are likely to ask what NATO ever did without Sweden," said Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.