Sweden on Monday officially announced it will apply for NATO membership as a deterrent against Russian aggression, entering a “new era” as it reverses two centuries of military non-alignment. “The government has decided to inform NATO that Sweden wants to become a member of the alliance,” Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson told reporters a day after neighbouring Finland made a similar announcement. “We are leaving one era and beginning another,” Andersson said of the dramatic turnaround of her country’s position less than three months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Sweden’s NATO ambassado…