Turkish Parliament Votes In Favor Of Swedish NATO Accession
Turkey’s parliament voted Tuesday night to approve Sweden’s application to join NATO, a sign of major progress after 20 months of stalling by the Turkish government.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan still needs to approve the bill for it to become law, and to deposit documents approving accession with the United States.
The passage of the Turkish bill leaves Hungary as the last nation yet to put approval of Swedish NATO membership to a parliamentary vote. Earlier on Tuesday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced that he had invited Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to visit Hungary to “negotiate” on Sweden’s NATO accession.
“Today we are one step closer to becoming a full member of NATO. Positive that the Grand General Assembly of Türkiye has voted in favour of Sweden’s NATO accession,” said Kristersson in a post on X, the social media network formerly known as Twitter.
Sweden and Finland submitted their applications simultaneously as part of a trilateral 2022 agreement with Turkey. While Finland officially became a member of NATO in April 2023 following the completion of its ratification process, Sweden’s ratification process has been stalled by the Turkish and Hungarian governments, with Ankara delaying a parliamentary vote over multiple disputes including the January burning of a Koran in Stockholm by far-right demonstrators, as well as street protests by pro-Kurdish activists Ankara alleges are linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
More recently, Erdogan demanded that the United States approve the sale of new F-16Vs and F-16 upgrade packages as a condition for Turkish approval of Swedish NATO membership. The sale of the F-16s had met with opposition from senior American lawmakers, most notably the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Bob Menendez. After Menendez lost his position amidst an ongoing corruption investigation, he was replaced by Sen. Ben Cardin, who has not publicly expressed a position on a possible sale.