- As soon as the invitation to NATO membership is issued, we will in practice be treated as a NATO member.

That is my firm view and I have run a lot in the corridors of the Pentagon.

It is simply inconceivable that the United States would accept an attack on a qualified and NATO-mature country in the middle of an accession process.

It's about the US's credibility, says Krister Bringéus to SVT.

Several people with insight into the process tell SVT that the first part of the road to a NATO membership will go very fast.

Sweden announces its interest, Sweden is examined, and the NATO Council, NATO's highest decision-making body, issues an invitation to Sweden to join NATO.

It takes days, maybe a week, according to the estimates SVT has received.

Sweden will soon receive a formal invitation to NATO.

Bringéus: No formal protection

It is the time from the invitation to the parliaments in all NATO member states approving Sweden's membership that may take some time.

There is talk of three to four months, maybe more or less.

During this time, Sweden has no formal protection under NATO's Article 5, but in practice we will have this protection from the large countries such as the United States and Great Britain, according to Krister Bringéus.

- In connection with that, we can count on, and I have very strong reason to believe that this will be the case, that the leading NATO countries issue a kind of declaration stating that they will act in solidarity with Sweden from now on, he says.

He himself has not been an outspoken advocate of Swedish membership in NATO, but what has happened in Ukraine has led him to take a stand for membership.

Having said that, his analysis in this context should not be seen as a way to reassure those who are worried about a Swedish NATO application.

- This is not a debate post.

This is an account of the knowledge that the general secretary Carl-Magnus Eriksson and I acquired during a year of investigative work.

Over 300 interviews in 22 countries, says Krister Bringéus.

Javascript is disabled

Javascript must be turned on to play video

Read more about browser support

The browser is not supported

SVT does not support playback in your browser.

We therefore recommend that you switch to a different browser.

Read more about browser support

What protection do you get?

What are your obligations?

And who really decides?

- This means being a member of NATO.

Photo: TT