Hungary's legislature approved Sweden's accession to NATO at the start of the week, removing the final obstruction to a process dating back to May 2022.

Speaking to ETV current affairs show "Ringvaade" Tuesday, Margus Kolga, who was ambassador to Sweden 2019-2022, said in its delays, Budapest wanted to convey a message to NATO's newest member-to-be.

"The message was primarily that Sweden had previously been somewhat critical of Hungary, the state of democracy and media freedoms there," Kolga said.

"Hungary also wanted to make the point that now that we are in a common alliance together, we should actually respect one another more," Kolga went on.

For Sweden, joining NATO has ended a period of ostensible neutrality which had lasted more than two centuries. Whereas the country did not become directly embroiled in either of the two world wars and during the Cold War, now it has thrown its lot in with the US-led NATO.

According to Kolga, Sweden abandoned this policy of neutrality for three reasons, the first somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

"The first reason came in 2021, when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sent a letter to NATO member states calling for a review of the European security architecture, one aspect of which would be that NATO would have foregone enlargement. This was sending a message to Finland and Sweden, who thought they might join NATO at the moment when it became expedient or necessary. The message was that maybe at some point, joining would no longer be possible," Kolga said.

"The second reason was the start of the war in Ukraine; Russia's aggression and its very direct military attack."

Finally, Finland, which in its history has been both under Swedish and Russian rule, had to abandon its own policy of neutrality that it had pursued during the Cold War.

"The third reason is most likely that the Finns came to the decision to join NATO earlier that they would have liked to, and Sweden saw that they would stay in their situation alone in their region. Certainly from a security point of view, this would not have been optimal," Kolga added.

According to Kolga, with the joining of Sweden and Finland, NATO will gain significant military capabilities both in the air and at sea, and in the case of Finland, also in land forces.

"Following the accession of Finland and Sweden it will be much easier for NATO to achieve air and maritime superiority, and better maritime and aerial awareness than has been the case up to now," Kolga went on.

In addition, Sweden will be able to contribute by bringing its world renowned and substantial defense industry further to the table.

"Sweden's defense industry is of a sort that can produce a platform from every military dimension, and for all weapons types," Kolga said of this, putting the sector alongside the defense industries of major NATO nations France, the UK and Germany.

"They manufacture planes, submarines, various kinds of armored vehicles, plus the Swedes have proper anti-tank, anti-aircraft systems, etc." he went on.

"Technologically and militarily speaking, then, this development represents a very strong step," he went on.

If NATO as a whole has become politically and security stronger thanks to the accession of Finland and now Sweden, this is all the more the case for Estonia itself, Kolga noted.

The location of these countries and the virtual completion of a NATO "lake," ie. the Baltic.

Hungary finally ratified Sweden's membership on Monday, the other hold-out nation, Turkey, last month gave the go ahead to Sweden joining.

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