Sweden casts a vote in NATO

The Swedish parliament on Wednesday voted in favor of joining NATO, almost a year after the government in Stockholm applied for membership. The formal vote in the Riksdag was passed by 269 votes to 37, with 43 members abstaining. Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom tweeted after the vote that Sweden will be safer and more secure and will be a security provider to the alliance. The vote was largely a formality, since the government had made the decision to apply to the military bloc in May 2022 and NATO approved the Accession Protocols in July that year. Only the Left Party (Vansterpartiet) and the Greens voted in opposition to the motion, with the Greens accusing the government of wanting to "plunge Sweden into a nuclear alliance with a Turkish despot as a doorman." The Swedish government cited the escalation of hostilities in Ukraine as justification for abandoning a policy of neutrality that has been in place since 1815.