2024-01-22 18:48:00
After a long delay, Türkiye is set to vote on Sweden’s accession to NATO
Jan 22, 2024, 7:48 p.m. Listen to article
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Sweden and Finland will apply for membership in NATO as early as May 2022. While Finland was allowed to join last year, they have to wait in Stockholm – Hungary and Turkey are blocking. The latter is now apparently giving up resistance.
The vote in the Turkish parliament on Sweden joining NATO is reportedly imminent. The broadcaster CNN Türk reported that the vote was planned for Tuesday. The Turkish broadcaster NTV reported that a vote would take place this week. If Turkey ratifies Sweden’s admission to the defense alliance, Hungary would remain the only NATO member that still has to agree to join.
In response to the Russian war of aggression once morest Ukraine, traditionally non-aligned Sweden applied for NATO membership together with its neighboring country Finland in May 2022. Finland joined the military alliance in April 2023, while Sweden is still waiting for approval from NATO members Turkey and Hungary.
Turkey has justified its long hesitation, among other things, with the Swedish authorities’ alleged lax treatment of suspected members of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Sweden then promised, among other things, tougher action once morest the PKK. It was only last July that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan finally agreed to give up his veto. The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee approved the Swedish request in December.
However, Erdogan has now made new demands and made the ratification of Sweden’s NATO membership dependent on the USA approving the delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey.
Approval from Hungary is still missing
Hungary recently accused Sweden of not approaching Budapest enough. “The Swedes have done nothing to build a friendly relationship,” said Gergely Gulyas, Prime Minister Victor Orban’s chief of staff. Quick access to NATO may not be a priority for Sweden following all.
He emphasized that he was not talking “regarding the Prime Minister, let alone the King, but simply regarding the Foreign Minister.” “One of them should get in touch and inquire regarding the Hungarian Parliament’s concerns.” Hungary is the only country besides Turkey that has not yet ratified Sweden’s entry into the military alliance, although it had pledged its fundamental support.
Budapest demands that Stockholm end its policy of “denigration” towards the Orban government. Swedish representatives regularly criticized Hungary inappropriately “on issues of the rule of law,” is one accusation. Hungary has “the right to demand respect from Sweden before preparing for a positive decision,” Orban said last year.
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