Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde on Tuesday signed Sweden's application to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), state media reported. 

The move came a day after Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson announced the official decision to start the process of the country's application for NATO membership. 

"It is clear that there is a broad majority in Sweden's parliament for Sweden to join NATO," Andersson said during a press conference on Monday. 

"We leave one era and go into another. We will inform NATO that we want to become a member of the alliance," she said. 

Sweden's NATO ambassador in Brussels will submit the country's NATO application within the next few days, she said. The application will be submitted together with Finland.

The Finnish government on Sunday announced its decision to apply for NATO membership. 

Sweden and Finland need each of NATO's 30 members to approve their applications. The ratification process had been expected to take up to a year, though Turkey's objections have thrown that into doubt.

The Nordic countries, who had long adhered to a policy of neutrality and military non-alignment, made the dramatic change after the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the probable accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO poses "no immediate threat" to Russia, but warned against the expansion of NATO's military infrastructure into these countries. Russia and Finland share an over 1,300-kilometer land border. 

"As to enlargement, Russia has no problem with these states – none. And so in this sense there is no immediate threat to Russia from an expansion (of NATO) to include these countries," Putin told the leaders from the member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Moscow. 

"But the expansion of military infrastructure into this territory would certainly provoke our response," he said. 

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How to join NATO: What must Finland and Sweden do to become members?