After more than a year of delays, the Turkish parliament is set to approve on Tuesday Sweden’s entry into NATO. The decision comes after the Turkish Foreign Affairs Commission approved the country’s bid for membership last month.
In 2022, Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership. And although Finland eventually joined the organization in April 2023, Turkey refused to ratify Sweden’s bid, a decision that has frustrated its Western allies.
Initially, Turkey refused to endorse Sweden’s membership under claims that the country protected members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
Sweden has since introduced an anti-terrorism bill that makes membership of a terrorist organization illegal.
Furthermore, Sweden, Canada, Finland and the Netherlands have relaxed arms-export policies for Turkey. However, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has linked the upcoming ratification with the delayed U.S. approval of the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey. The White House backs the sale of these jets, but the timeline for congressional approval is not clear.
Despite this barrier, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said after talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan this month that Turkey is likely to soon ratify Sweden’s bid for membership, leaving Hungary as the next barrier to Sweden’s entry to NATO.
Despite Turkey’s likely approval of Sweden’s bid, Hungary has been delaying a decision on the country’s membership.
Hungary says Sweden has had an “openly hostile attitude” toward Budapest for years and is angry about Sweden’s criticism of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban over the perceived erosion of the rule of law. Orban denies any erosion.
Orban’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, noted last Thursday a lack of “confidence-building steps” from Stockholm to improve relations with Budapest, which might aid in ratifying Sweden’s accession.
Some material for this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.