NewsTracker Answers for week of Mar. 04, 2024

Q: Nearly two years after it applied for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Sweden is finally joining the military and political alliance. Where is the Scandinavian nation on this map of the Northern Hemisphere?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Sweden avoided alliances and remained neutral through two centuries of European conflicts. The last time Swedish troops went to war was in 1814 when they defeated their western neighbor ...

A. Denmark

B. Finland

C. Norway

D. Russia

C. Sweden borders Norway to the west and north, Finland to the east, and is connected to Denmark to the southwest by a bridge and tunnel. The kings of Sweden also ruled Norway from 1814 until 1905. Norway was one of the first 12 member nations when NATO was formed in 1949 to counter the Soviet Union. Sweden is the 32nd nation to join.

Q: Half of the member nations of NATO joined the mutual defense alliance after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Most of those new members were once part of the Soviet Union or one of its satellite states. Which former Soviet satellite state was the last NATO member to accept Sweden as a NATO ally?

A. Albania

B. Hungary

C. Poland

D. Romania

B. Last week, Hungary’s parliament voted to accept Sweden’s bid to join NATO and Sweden agreed to sell Hungary some of its advanced fighter jets. It was the last hurdle to Sweden’s membership. Turkey had also stood in the way of Sweden until they reconciled their differences and the United States agreed to sell Turkey F-16 fighter jets.

Q: Sweden and its neighbor Finland applied for NATO membership after Russia invaded Ukraine in part because of the alliance’s growth in Eastern Europe. With Sweden and Finland, NATO gains greater influence over which key water route to Russian ports?

A. Baltic Sea

B. Barents Sea

C. Bering Sea

D. Black Sea

A. The nine nations bordering the Baltic Sea include Russia and eight NATO members – Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Russia’s second-largest city, Saint Petersburg, is on a river flowing into the eastern end of the Baltic.

Q: Sweden joins NATO amid worries about the U.S. role in the alliance if Donald Trump is elected. Some in Europe are talking about relying on their own nuclear deterrence. Which NATO nation other than the U.S. controls its own nuclear weapons?

A. Denmark

B. France

C. Germany

D. Turkey

B. France developed and controls its own nuclear arsenal. But, it is not nearly as large as the United States or Russia.