ANKARA: Turkiye’s parliament is likely to end more than a year of delays that severely strained its relations with Western allies and approve Sweden’s membership of NATO this week.
CNN reported that a vote could be take place as on Tuesday while AFP reported that it might be held on Thursday.
Ankara’s ratification would leave Hungary as the last holdout in an accession process that Sweden and Finland started in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine about two years ago. Finland became the 31st member of the NATO last April.
Its membership roughly doubled the length of NATO’s border with Moscow and substantially strengthened the defense of three tiny Baltic countries that joined the alliance after the Soviet Union’s collapse.
Turkish Lawmakers to Vote on Sweden’s NATO Membership
Finland and Sweden pursued a policy of military non-alignment during the Cold War era confrontation between Washington and Moscow.
But Russia’s invasion of its western neighbor set off Europe’s most brutal land battle since World War II, overturning geopolitical calculations.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s resistance to Sweden’s NATO accession showed his more nuanced stance toward Russia.
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Ankara has profited from maintaining — and even expanding — trade with Moscow while at the same time supplying Kyiv with drones and other essential weapons.
President Erdogan has also been one of the few leaders to hold regular meetings and phone talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Turkish media said that President Putin could make his first wartime trip to Ankara next month.
Erdogan’s objections to Sweden’s bid firstly focused on Stockholm’s perceived acceptance of Kurdish groups.
Sweden has replied by tightening its anti-terrorism laws and tacking other security measures demanded by President Erdogan. The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee has approved the Swedish bid last month.
But President Erdogan has since demanded that the US follow through on its pledge to provide a batch of F-16 fighter jets for Turkiye’s Air Force. Earlier, Erdogan discussed his demands by phone with US President Joe Biden.
US officials said that Ankara’s request could win the required congressional approval if Sweden’s NATO accession goes through — a stance reaffirmed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a trip to Istanbul this month.
