After months of debate, the Turkish Grand National Assembly approved Sweden’s accession to NATO Bloomberg.
A vote was taken in the parliamentary general assembly in Ankara to accept Sweden’s statement. The document will now be sent to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for signature. The last country in the alliance that has not yet approved Sweden’s application is Hungary.
On May 18, 2023, Sweden and Finland officially applied to join NATO. Finland joined the bloc, but Turkey and Hungary, which have not yet approved Sweden’s application, do not allow Sweden.
In its talks with the Turkish President, EU member Sweden agreed to actively support Turkey’s EU accession process in exchange for Turkey’s approval of its application to NATO. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also stated that the issues of Sweden’s accession to NATO and Turkey’s accession to the EU “are not directly related to each other.” In August last year, he expressed optimistic predictions about Sweden entering the alliance in the autumn.
Formerly Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson statedHe said his country’s place is in NATO.