Turkey Parliament Backs Sweden’s NATO Membership
Turkish MPS have ratified Sweden’s bid to join NATO in a long-delayed vote that represents a big step forward on the Nordic nation’s path to membership.
Sweden applied to join in 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but turkey withheld approval amid a row over what it called Sweden’s support to Kurdish separatists.
Turkish President Erdogan is expected to sign the legislation within days.
It leaves Hungary the sole NATO member yet to ratify Sweden’s accession.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson posted on social media that today we are one step closer to becoming a full member of NATO”.
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And NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Turkey’s vote, saying he was counting on Hungary to complete its national ratification as soon as possible.
Sweden and its eastern neighbor Finland, both long considered as militarily neutral, announced their intention to join NATO in May 2022, several months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Finland formally joined in April, doubling the length of the alliance’s border with Russia.
Over the past year, Hungary has given a wide range of explanations for the delay.
It initially cited technical reasons related to the Parliament’s schedule but later complained about a video shown in Swedish schools that cast Mr. Orban’s government in a bad light.
Mr. Grand, the former NATO assistant secretary general and now a defense expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that he assumed leaders in Budapest and Ankara were coordinating their moves and that he had become more cautious about predicting Sweden’s quick entry into the alliance.
But after nearly two years, he added, I think we are now at the point where it becomes sort of ridiculous to further delay it.
