Turkey’s parliament has approved Sweden’s application to join NATO – lifting a key barrier to its entry into the military alliance.
The decision means Hungary is the only NATO member yet to ratify Sweden’s application after 20 months of delays.
Turkey had been stalling Sweden’s accession into the Western military alliance for more than a year, accusing the country of being too lenient towards groups the Turkish government regards as security threats.
The NATO member had been seeking concessions from Sweden, including a tougher stance toward Kurdish militants and members of a network Turkey blames for a failed coup in 2016.
Turkey has also been angered by a series of demonstrations by supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Sweden as well as Koran-burning protests in the country that angered Muslim nations.
However, Turkey’s parliament approved Sweden’s NATO membership bid on Tuesday following more than four hours of debate.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, its nationalist MHP allies, and the main opposition CHP voted in favour of the bid in the general assembly, while opposition nationalist, Islamist and leftist parties voted against it.
Mr Erdogan will sign the bill into law, likely in the coming days, thus ending a lengthy process that has both frustrated some of Turkey’s Western allies and enabled it to extract concessions.
Swedish prime minister invited to Hungary
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Turkey’s decision comes after Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, said on Tuesday he had invited Sweden’s prime minister Ulf Kristersson to visit Hungary and negotiate over Sweden’s NATO ambitions.
No specific date was proposed for the visit.
Hungary’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, told reporters on Tuesday the aim of the visit would be to “build trust”.
Sweden applied to join NATO in May 2022 in a historic shift in its security policy prompted by Russia’s invasion ofUkraine in February that year.
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Source : Sky News
