Elite Marches, Hand-in-Hand with Erdoğan, into NATO

It was on Monday 10 July, the day before the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius was due to begin, that the right-wing, military and arms industry’s dream of Swedish NATO membership came true. This historic step had been preceded by the rightwing ‘blue-brown’ government’s further pandering to Erdoğan’s regime and promises from Washington that Turkey would be allowed to buy US F-16 fighter jets.

Nor can it be ruled out that US imperialism has also met Erdoğan on other points to secure Swedish membership, which Washington has long wanted.

”Sweden has taken major steps to strengthen our relationship even further. You have made the bold and historic decision to apply for NATO membership. And you have the full and firm support of the United States. We recently welcomed Finland as the 31st member of NATO. And 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. Sweden’s membership in NATO is going to mean a stronger alliance. As I’ve seen firsthand on this trip, the Swedish Armed Forces are an exceptionally capable and highly professional fighting force. And Sweden’s troops and capabilities will enhance NATO’s operations to deter conflict, including in the Baltic Sea region”, as the US Defense Minister Lloyd J. Austin III said when he visited Sweden in April.

Swedish membership strengthens NATO both politically and militarily. After Sweden joins, all the Nordic countries are members of NATO and the Baltic Sea becomes almost a NATO sea.

The decision means that both the Swedish armed forces and the country’s arms industry will be incorporated into NATO. As a member, “Sweden will, over time and in a ‘360-degree perspective’ — as it is called in NATO language — contribute to the alliance’s planning, exercises, operations and deployments”, said Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, when he spoke at the beginning of the year on “Sweden’s role in NATO”.

In the same speech, he also stated that “the Swedish defence industry is an indispensable part of our commitment to NATO”.

Membership represents the culmination of the NATO co-operation that began in the 1990s and has included Swedish military participation in the NATO-led wars in Afghanistan, Libya and the former Yugoslavia. This ever-deepening partnership eventually resulted in Sweden becoming NATO’s closest partner and a member of the military alliance’s ‘gold club’.

Alongside the strengthening of NATO co-operation, political and military ties to US imperialism have become ever stronger. It is to consolidate these ties that the US Patriot air defence system was purchased and deployed on Gotland (Sweden’s largest island). Patriot can be linked to NATO countries that have the same system.

The blue-brown government has described Sweden becoming a member of NATO before the end of the summit as an overarching goal. Membership would complete the historic paradigm shift in foreign and security policy that the previous Social Democratic government initiated in a coup-like manner and with the Ukraine war as an excuse.

Since the start of the Ukrainian war, all branches of the Swedish establishment have conducted an unprecedented campaign of incitement and propaganda in favour of Swedish NATO membership and rapid military rearmament.

In the face of this campaign, even the Left Party, which oppose NATO membership in words only, cowered. And at the elite’s annual gathering in Almedalen this year, Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar argued that instead of the government negotiating with the governments of Turkey and Hungary, NATO and its head Jens Stoltenberg must step in: “Now NATO needs to take its responsibility as an organisation. This does not give a good picture of this defence organisation. It must now improve its reputation” (Svenska Dagbladet, 1 July). When did it become the task of NATO opponents to act as advisors to NATO?

Both the last 2 Swedish governments, first the social democratic and then the blue-brown, and US imperialism have also been prepared to go to great lengths to persuade Erdoğan to agree to Swedish membership.

The Swedish governments have written a new constitution (terror law), increased the persecution and incitement against Kurds in Sweden and abolished the arms embargo against Turkey in order to appease Erdoğan. Just the week before the summit, a Swedish district court classified the PKK as a terrorist organisation for the first time.

At the same time, there has been a historically large military buildup in Sweden in order to reach NATO’s goal of having member states’ military spending equal to at least 2 per cent of GDP by next year.

It was also only after the blue-brown government made new promises to Erdoğan, including promises of lasting and special bilateral so-called security cooperation to “combat terrorism”, increased trade with Turkey and support for the country’s efforts to join the EU, that the Turkish regime said it was prepared to support Swedish NATO membership.

To appease Erdoğan, NATO has also promised the appointment of a special coordinator for counter-terrorism (the Turkish regime labels almost all opposition as “terrorism”). In addition to that, according to the Bloomberg news site on 11 July, the European Union has also agreed concessions over a customs union and visa-free travel.

The militarism and repressive policies that have characterized the ‘NATO process’ are indicative of what membership will entail.

At the recent NATO summit the language of power is very much in evidence, and the tone is more hawkish than before. The Ukraine war, Ukraine’s possible membership, NATO and the new Cold War between the US and China, as well as continued military rearmament and the development of an action plan to increase the capacity of the war industry are the main topics of the summit. At the last NATO summit in Madrid in June 2022, the military alliance adopted a new so-called Strategic Concept, which for the first time describes China as a threat to NATO’s interests, security and values.

Last year’s summit was also attended by NATO’s Indo-Pacific partners (Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea), who are also attending Vilnius to further strengthen ties with NATO, which plans to open a liaison office in Japan.

Sweden is joining an increasingly belligerent NATO which, like US imperialism, is turning to Asia — Swedish membership increases tensions in the imperialist power struggle that threatens to set the world on fire.

For the time being, NATO membership and the military build-up have support in public opinion, but when the full significance of membership becomes clear, while the military build-up inevitably means both higher taxes and cuts in welfare, public opinion will begin to turn again.

Now it is more important than ever to build the anti-NATO resistance, stand up against militarism and attacks on democratic rights and freedoms — and fight against imperialism and warmongering to secure socialist future and peace.