the swedish flag will be raised at nato headquarters in brussels on march 11. >> distinguished guests, the secretary of state of the united states, acomp nid by the prime minister of sweden and the minister of foreign affairs of sweden. >> good morning, everyone. thank you for being here today. prime minister accompanied by forch minister

gilstrom, will foz sit the documents recognizing the united states of america as dpoz tear -- dopositary of the treaty. [inaudible] [laughter] >> thank you. [applause] >> gd come to those who

wait. no better example. but with receipt of this instrument of accession, let me be the very first to welcome sweden as a party to the washington treaty and the 32 p member of the north -- and he 32nd member of the north atlantic treaty organization. [applause] prime minister, to you, my friend the foreign minister, a personal note of thanks. for your extraordinary leadership. your extraordinary vision, and yourlittle bit of a road but i think we've known from day one that we would be here today. and now we are. this is a historic moment for sweden. it's historic for our alliance. it's historic for the transatlantic relationship. our nato alliance, our defensive

alliance, is now strongean it's. but, i think if you step back and think of where we were three years ago, none of this was fore ordained and in fact none of this was foreseeable. sweden had a 200-year-old policy of nonalignment. and before putin's re-invasion of ukraine in february of 2022, if you looked at the polling, less than one third of swedes supported joining nato. this was part and parcel of sweden's history. and then everything changed. the invaition, three quarters of the swedish people made clear their desire to join. swedes realized something very profound. that if putin was willing to try

to erase one neighbor from the map, then he might well not stop there. and if he was allowed to proceed with impunitot would his aggression potentially continue but would-be aggressors everywhere would get the message that it was open season. and swedish people stood up, stood up not only for their own country, but stood■ up to te common responsibility that we share to try to make sure that the very foundations of the international system that we all security, to have opportunity, when they were challenged, we were there to sweden was there to defend them. and i think what this tells us even more profoundly is the reaffirmation of sweden's democratic character. change driven by its people.

by its citizens. there's also no clearer example than today of the strategic debacle that putin's invasion of ukraine has become for russia. we see a russia that is now weaker militarily, economically, diplomatically. its standing in ukraine has changed dramatically. whereas before 2014, the first inon open to positive relations with russia. now virtually the entire society, and not just today, probably for generations, is turned against russia because of its aggression. and fundamentally, our alliance is now, as i said, both larger and stronger than it's and we see again and again and again and again that everything putin sought to prevent, he's actually precipitated by his actions, by his aggression. and there's no clearer example

of that than sweden becoming a member of the -- alliance. but even once that decision was made, none of this was easy. none of this was obvious. yearso years tireless diplomacy. together with the extraordinary secretary general of nato, stultenberg, to achieve ratification by every nato member. and again, the determination of sweden's leadership, the extraordinary diplomacy it exerted, making sure that every question was answered, every challenge was met, every obstacle was overcome, that's what brought us to today. now, some doubted we'd get here but we are here. this is built on a partnership

between sweden and nato that goes back many,y sweden has long been an active partner with nato ally, training to, exercising together, working together. and fundamentally, the reason this is such a strong, powerful fit is because sweden embodied s that are at the heart of nato. democracy. liberty, the rule of law. and it also brings unique this . unique capabilities in the arctic, the baltic sea, and this year of course sweden will contribute more than% of its g.d.p., to defense and continue to show the way for all nato members. if you go back to 1949, at ng nt truman said this, and i quote. in taking steps to prevent aggression against our ownrposef aggression against other peoples. we hope to create a shield

against aggression and the fear of■.■@-8 aggression. a bulwark which will permit to get on with the real business of government society. the business of achieving a fuller and happier life for all of our citizens. that is fundamentally what this intervise -- enterprise is all about. what nato is all about. it's making sure that together we are creating an environment in which our people are safe, secure, and can meet their full potential.e have fort fid the shield. fortified the shield against aggression. we brought more people under its protection so that together, we can focus on the real work of delivering for our people. with that, mr. prime minister, [applause] >> thank you so much,

mr. secretary, antony, thank you so much. today is a sweden is now a member of nato. we are indeed grateful overwhelming, bipartisan congressional support for sweden's accession and for the strong leadership from the u.s. administration leading on ratification and security assurances. i would personally like to thank both president biden and you, secretary blinken, for your invaluable efforts and personal commitments during the accession process. i would also like to thank all nato allies who have supported our accession and welcoming sweden as the 3nd member■ of the alliance. we are humble. but we are also proud. allies. live up to high united we stand.

unity and solidarity will be sweden's guiding light as a nato member. we will shed burdens, re-- responsibilities and risksgw w today is, as second retear blinken said, it's a victory for freedom today. has made free democratic sovereign and united choice to join nato. there is an overwhelming support in our parliament and■x among or people. that is the strength, both of sweden if and for the alliance. an sweden will stand for the values in washington treaty, signed just a few blocks from here,3g 5 years ago. freedom, democracy, individual liberty, and the rule of law. swed i as was mentioned, now lead #-g00 years of neutrality in military nonalign -- is now

leaving neutrality and military nonalignment behind. it is a very natural step. and coming home to alie for free dm to which many democracies already belong. also home to our neighbors security cooperation. home to the circle of countries where we, for generations, have belonged. we will dend with the countries closest to us both in terms of geography, culture, and values. the security situation in our region has not been this serious since the second world war. russia will stay a serious threat to the euro-atlantic security for the foreseeable future. applied to join the nato defense alliance. to gain security, but also to provide security.

we have■6 capabilities to contribute, on land, in the air, at sea. our support of ukraine is a fundamental part of that. ukraine is fighting bravely for its freedom. but they are also defending fre. at the same time we are strengthening our defense and doubling the defense budget right now. from this year onwards, sweden meets nato standard of 2% of g.d.p. to defense spendings. this is important for nato to burden sharing. we are increasing the numbers of conscripts, strengthening civil reintroducing civilian service in sweden. we have been prepared for this task for quite a while. and i'm very pleased to take this very final step. sweden is joining nato, it's in

e the end of something, it's the beginning of something new. i look forward to making the world safer and freer, together with the united and all other nato allies. and allow me finally a very short summary in swedish. [speaking swedish]

aking swedish] thank you all so much. [applause] >> thank you, distinguished guests. please remain in your seats as

the delegations depart and to y. thank you. dm■