• Sweden has officially become the 32^nd member of NATO after it completed its accession process in Washington.
• Sweden applied to join the defence alliance after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 – but its request was blocked by two members- Turkey and Hungary.
• Prior to Sweden,Finland – which has a 1,340km (832 mile) land border with Russia – joined in April 2023.
• With Sweden and Finland joining NATO, it is seeing its biggest expansion since the 1990s. They will add nearly 300,000 active and reserve troops to the alliance’s ranks.

 ABOUT NATO

• NATO– the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – was formed in 1949 by 12 countries, including the US, UK, Canada and France.
  • It is a multinational military alliance founded on the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty.
  • Its aim was to block expansion by the Soviet Union – a group of communist states which included Russia.
• HQ- Brussels, Belgium
• NATO does not have an army of its own, but member countries can take collective military action in response to crises.
• They also coordinate military plans and carry out joint military exercises.
• NATO has 31 members across Europe and North America, including the UK, US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Turkey.
• After the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, many Eastern European countries joined: Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.