Two days after meeting UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace at the Pentagon on April 17, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was in Stockholm pumping up Sweden/s membership in NATO, which otherwise still hasn’t been ratified by Turkey and Hungary. “We are very grateful for the continued support from the United States for— for Sweden’s application to NATO and the clear message from you on the importance of a quick ratification for Sweden’s bid to join the alliance and become a full-fledged member of NATO,” Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson said during their joint press conference. To which Austin replied: “We look forward to soon welcoming Sweden as the 32nd. And to be clear, we look forward to that to happen before the summit in July. So, we encourage our allies, Türkiye and Hungary, to ratify Sweden’s accession as soon as possible. And we fully anticipate that Sweden will be a member of NATO by the time of the Vilnius Summit in July.”
Sweden’s accession to NATO will be followed by a further tightening of the military relationship with the US, said the Defense Secretary. “We’re looking forward to completing the negotiation of our U.S.-Swedish Defense Cooperation Agreement,” said Austin. “And once that agreement is finalized, it will allow for closer and deeper defense cooperation between our democracies.”
