As a Swede (who is opposed to a NATO membership) - I must say what a shit show this has been and an embarrassment for NATO.
I get that if you're in a military alliance together, you need to not hate eachother but when every country need to ratify your membership it opens up for this kind of situation where a single country can hold an application hostage and try to get whatever they want because they simply don't like democracy.
I dont think it was panic over ukraine.
It was realization that international law and agreements means jack shit to putin.
It was realization that the russian army is as brutal as they were in ww2.
It was realization that an attack from russia is a real possibility.
Besides, sweden was only neutral on paper.
Sweden should have been one of the founding members of nato, but we decided to stay ”neutral” because of finland.
I do think however, that now that finland is a member, there is really no rush to get in.
Let erdo-dog do his whatever this is and get in when the dust settles.
I think it's very reactionary. A decision like this should be taken through a public referendum and not in panic over Ukraine being invaded.
In addition, I think it's valuable with neutral countries rather than moving towards a world order where every country is either on USA's or Russia's side.
I just saw a report while searching new on Lemmy, that they're going to get some F-16s from the US. I'm pretty sure the governments are trying to make these things look disconnected, but I'm pretty sure they're connected. Timing is too good
What are you talking about, the US has declared quite openly that Turkey will not be able to buy F-16s from the US unless they accept Sweden into NATO.