Bad News Putin, Turkey is Backing Sweden’s NATO Bid – Turkey has agreed to back Sweden’s bid to join NATO, the alliance’s chief Jens Stoltenberg said on the eve of the NATO summit, which begins in Vilnius, Lithuania on Tuesday.
It has been seen as a stunning about-face from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who had only earlier on Monday suggested Sweden would only join the international military alliance after Turkey was accepted into the European Union.
As one of NATO’s 31 members, Turkey maintained a veto over any new country joining the group.
Turkey Blocked Sweden NATO Big
Erdoğan, who won reelection in May, has stood firm in the path of Sweden joining NATO for more than a year over a multitude of concerns.
The Turkish leader, who has led his country since 2014, claimed Sweden had harbored militants Turkey has viewed as terrorists, and insisted Stockholm lift a ban on arms exports to Ankara.
Sweden, which had maintained a strict policy of neutrality throughout the Cold War and into the modern era, was motivated along with its non-aligned neighbor Finland to seek NATO membership following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The Nordic nation had amended its laws, lifted the ban in order to comply with those requests, and even expanded its counter-terrorism operation against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party).
Yet, Erdoğan seemed to move the goalposts again in recent days by linking Sweden’s NATO accession to Turkey’s path to EU membership. Then in the surprise move, Turkey signaled it would approve Stockholm’s efforts to join the alliance.
“President Erdoğan has agreed to forward the accession protocol for Sweden to the Grand National Assembly [Turkey’s parliament] as soon as possible and work closely with the assembly to ensure ratification,” Stoltenberg said on Monday, describing this as a “historic step,” but still stressed that a “clear date” could not be given for when Sweden could join the military alliance.
Finland was admitted into the alliance in March.
Hungarian Obstacle Not Likely
Turkey was not alone in blocking Sweden’s path toward NATO membership. Hungary also has yet to ratify Sweden’s membership application. When asked about the opposition from Budapest, Stoltenberg said that “Hungary has made it clear that they will not be the last to ratify”.
“I think that problem will be solved,” he added.
This could be a major win for U.S. President Joe Biden, who had consistently expressed confidence that Sweden would join the alliance at the Vilnius summit, despite Turkish opposition. The president told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in an exclusive interview ahead of the summit that he was optimistic that Sweden would eventually be admitted to NATO, noting Turkey is seeking to modernize its F-16 fleet, along with Greece, which has voted to admit Sweden.
“Turkey is looking for modernization of F-16 aircraft. And (Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos) Mitsotakis in Greece is also looking for some help,” Biden said. “And so, what I’m trying to, quite frankly, put together is a little bit of a consortium here, where we’re strengthening NATO in terms of military capacity of both Greece as well as Turkey, and allow Sweden to come in. But it’s in play. It’s not done.”
This is a developing story.
Author Experience and Expertise
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
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