Last week, a member of the Swedish Parliament from the Social Democratic Party, Hans Hoff, said that Sweden should receive security guarantees from the US at a time when a decision is being made in Stockholm on the country’s possible entry into NATO.
"The Government has received information from the US and the UK, in particular, on what protection and support might look like during a possible application process... This includes strong political support from NATO countries, in-depth exercises, the expansion of NATO’s presence in the Baltic Sea region, in-depth intelligence cooperation and expert support to identify and counter hybrid, cyber and conventional threats," a government source told Aftonbladet.
On Monday, the Finnish Iltalehti newspaper reported that the applications of Finland and Sweden to NATO should be submitted on May 16-20. The Swedish newspaper Expressen confirmed this information.
Last week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Russia has warned Sweden and Finland about the consequences of joining NATO.