Baltic: Leaders of Baltic Sea countries welcome Sweden’s NATO entry

The Nordic and Baltic countries and Poland expect Sweden’s membership of NATO to increase security in the Baltic Sea region, The Baltic Times reports. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that Sweden was joining NATO as a “motivated partner,” after 200 years of non-alignment. Finnish President Sauli Niinistö reiterated that Finland’s membership of NATO was “not complete without Sweden.” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre noted that Swedish membership will mean that the entire Nordic region will be inside NATO, which will have “profound positive implications” for regional defence and security. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said that Sweden’s membership will make NATO “much stronger.”