The Turkish parliamentary committee on Foreign Affairs approved, yesterday, Sweden’s application for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), bringing it closer to being an effective member of the alliance.
Turkey is the last member of the Atlantic Alliance, together with Hungary, to block Sweden’s accession to NATO, through successive demands, but yesterday the Foreign Affairs committee of the Turkish National Assembly once once more analyzed the issue, which was then approved. Sweden submitted its application for membership at the same time as Finland, which was admitted in April, following the start of the Russian war in Ukraine in February 2022.
The accession protocol for Sweden, a previously non-aligned country, will now have to be approved in a Parliament plenary session, the date of which has yet to be set, in the last phase of the legislative process in Turkey. NATO member Turkey has delayed ratifying Sweden’s membership application for more than a year, accusing the country of being too permissive towards groups that Ankara considers threats to its security, including Kurdish militants and members of a network that is responsible for a failed coup d’état in 2016.
At the beginning of this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan associated the ratification of Sweden’s membership in NATO with the approval by the United States Congress of a Turkish request for the purchase of 40 new F-16 fighters and ‘kits’ for modernize the existing fleet in Turkey. Erdogan also called on Canada and other NATO allies to lift the arms embargoes imposed on Turkey.
Erdogan’s resistance was overcome following a telephone conversation with the American President, Joe Biden, this month, following which the Turkish Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, began to admit an acceleration of the ratification process of Swedish accession. Even so, the Turkish President added as a condition for Ankara’s ‘green light’ the simultaneous ratification by the United States Congress of the sale of F-16 combat aircraft to Turkey. Turkey had already played this ‘card’ to try to obtain authorization to acquire F-16s, which it needs to modernize its Air Force.
Biden’s US government is not opposed to this sale, but Congress has blocked it until now for political reasons, citing tensions with Greece, a NATO member country with which Ankara has recently become closer. Sweden and Finland abandoned their traditional military non-alignment positions to seek protection under the NATO security ‘umbrella’ following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Finland joined the alliance in April, becoming NATO’s 31st member, following the Turkish Parliament ratified the Nordic country’s candidacy.
NATO requires the unanimous approval of all existing members to expand, and Turkey and Hungary are the only countries that have resisted. Hungary blocked Sweden’s candidacy, claiming that Swedish politicians told “blatant lies” regarding the state of Hungarian democracy. The delays have frustrated other NATO allies who quickly accepted Sweden and Finland into the alliance.
