The Turkish parliament has ratified Sweden’s NATO membership, meaning only President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s signature and the Hungarian parliament’s approval are needed for the Scandinavian country to join the military alliance. NATO requires the unanimous approval of all existing members to expand.
The Turkish parliament, where Erdoğan’s ruling alliance holds a majority, voted 287-55 to approve the application that Sweden first made in 2022 to bolster its security in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We support NATO enlargement to improve the alliance’s deterrence efforts,” Fuat Oktay, head of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee said.
Turkey delayed the approval of Sweden’s NATO membership, citing concerns that the Scandinavian country was allowing groups that Turkey classifies as terrorist organisations to operate on their territory, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Turkey was also angered by a series of protests in Sweden involving the burning of the Quran, which authorities didn’t ban.
Fuat Oktay praised Sweden for adhering to Turkey’s requests, amending its anti-terrorism laws, curbing the PKK’s financial activities, and lifting restrictions on arms sales to Turkey.
An arms deal with the United States may also have swayed Turkey into accepting Sweden as a NATO member. The U.S. is said to be going ahead with the sale of forty new F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, and numerous influential members of Congress have said they would support the sale once Turkey approves Sweden’s accession. U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan welcomed the news of the Turkish vote, saying having Sweden in the alliance will make it “safer and stronger.”
For its part, Russia has cautioned that it would respond if NATO bolstered its military infrastructure in Sweden and Finland. The latter joined the alliance last year. Both countries previously pursued a policy of military non-alignment.
Although there has been speculation that Hungary would also sign off on accepting Sweden, the Hungarian parliament will only reconvene in the middle of February, and comments made in recent days by top officials suggest they are not budging for the time being.
Relations between the two countries have soured, with Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet listing some of the issues that have angered the conservative Budapest government: for example, Swedish children being taught in schools that Hungary is not a democracy and Sweden joining a European Commission lawsuit that challenges Hungary’s child protection act, seen by Eurocrats as discriminating against LGBT people, as it prohibits the promotion of homosexuality or gender transition in schools and media.
Last year Balázs Orbán, political adviser to the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, cited other examples, where current high-ranking members of the Swedish centre-right government called Hungary’s leadership xenophobic, and urged the EU to stop payments to Hungary.
In a letter sent on Tuesday, January 23rd, to Ulf Kristersson, Viktor Orbán invited the Swedish PM to Hungary, writing that “the basis of any political or security agreement between Sweden and Hungary must be mutual strong trust,” and that a more intensive political dialogue would contribute to strengthening mutual trust between the countries and their institutions.
However, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström rebuffed the invitation, saying there was “no reason to negotiate at this point” with Hungary. He added that, unlike Turkey, Hungary did not present any conditions when Sweden was invited to the 2022 NATO summit.
Talking to reporters in recent days, Gergely Gulyás, Hungarian Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office said NATO accession doesn’t seem to be too important to the Swedes, because they have not contacted Hungary. “In order to strengthen trust, contact is needed,” he added.
Prime Minister Orbán said on Wednesday that he had reiterated his support for Swedish NATO membership in a phone conversation with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, and will encourage the Hungarian parliament to ratify Sweden’s application as soon as possible.
