Also in November: Sweden becomes the 32nd NATO member

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In a letter to current members of the defense alliance, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg mentioned a meeting of foreign ministers on November 28 and 29 as a target date, as several diplomats confirmed to the German news agency in Brussels on Tuesday.

Stoltenberg therefore assumes that Turkey and Hungary will have completed the outstanding approval procedures by then.

“I look forward to welcoming Sweden as a full NATO ally in the very near future,” Stoltenberg said at a press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Stockholm on Tuesday.

Sweden has highly qualified armed forces and years of experience in operations with NATO. “Sweden is fully ready to join NATO. The time has come,” said Stoltenberg. He is now counting on rapid ratification by the Turkish parliament.

When asked whether he expected Swedish membership at the foreign ministers’ meeting at the end of November, Stoltenberg said he expected Turkish ratification to happen “soon”. However, like Kristersson, he did not want to give a specific date.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Sweden and Finland decided to apply for NATO membership after a long period of military freedom from alliance. Finland was admitted to NATO as the 31st member on April 4 this year.

Sweden, on the other hand, is to this day held back by the Turkish and Hungarian parties: the two countries are the only ones among the 31 members that have not yet ratified Sweden’s accession, which was mainly due to the blocking stance of the Turkish president. Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He mainly accused Swedish politicians of a lack of action against ‘terrorist organizations’ such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Sweden responded by, among other things, tightening its terror laws.

At both the NATO summit in Madrid in the summer of 2022 and the one in Vilnius in July this year, the blockade appeared to be officially resolved – but the Swedes were still denied accession.

Several Quran burnings in the Scandinavian EU country, among other things, proved to be obstacles, some of which were sharply criticized by Muslims. In Hungary, meanwhile, people contradicted Swedish statements about the rule of law and corruption in the country.

However, there is now further movement in the accession process, which could spell the end of Sweden’s diplomatic ordeal. On Monday, Erdogan submitted Sweden’s accession application to the Turkish parliament for ratification.

Approval by the Grand National Assembly is considered likely, although it was initially unclear when it would vote on the proposal. Before the meeting can discuss it, the application must be approved by the Foreign Relations Commission.

And then there is Hungary. Two opposition parties there – the socialist MSZP and the eco-left prime minister – demanded on Tuesday that parliament put ratification on the agenda as soon as possible.

Ultimately, the pace of ratification will be determined by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party, which had already submitted the corresponding draft to parliament last year. Hungary has assured several times that it does not want to delay the process and does not want to be the last country to ratify it, Stoltenberg emphasized in Stockholm. (SDA)

Source:Blick