NATO chief nudges Türkiye to greenlight Sweden’s bid as soon as possible

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged Türkiye on Wednesday (October 11) to abide by its own deal and let Sweden join the Western military alliance as soon as possible, after more than a year of delay.

The apparent breakthrough reached on the sideline of a NATO summit in Vilnius in July, where Türkiye seemed to agree on Sweden’s swift accession, seemed very short-lived, as NATO and its members continued piling pressure on Ankara, Euractive.com reports.

Türkiye has been delaying Sweden’s accession on the grounds that the country does not tackle terrorism strongly enough and acts as a safe haven for Kurdish activists Ankara regards as terrorists.

Sweden also awaits the green light from Hungary, which has accused Stockholm of meddling and criticising democracy in the country in an X post, but no mediation has been initiated to resolve that issue and NATO’s focus remains on Ankara.

The Turkish-Hungarian veto decoupled the joint bid of Finland and Sweden to join NATO following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Finland joined the alliance in April 2023.

In the July deal, President Erdoğan agreed to forward the accession protocol for Sweden to the grand national assembly “as soon as possible and work closely with the assembly to ensure ratification,” Stoltenberg had told reporters in Vilnius.

Parliamentary ratification of the protocols is a prerequisite for all NATO members before new countries can be accepted into the military alliance.

Now that the Turkish parliament is back in session, the ratification should happen any time soon, Stoltenberg told reporters after a meeting with defence ministers.

“It was stated clearly that it should happen as soon as possible, meaning that when the Parliament convened again, this process should start to take place. Now the Parliament has just convened a few days ago. Therefore I expect this to happen.”

He reiterated that “we have an agreement in Vilnius where Türkiye said clearly that they are ready to ratify, that the papers’ ratification will be transmitted to the Grand National Assembly and that the president will work with the Grand National Assembly, the Parliament, to ensure ratification.”

However, Turkish President Recep Erdoğan warned before the summer that setting the parliament’s agenda was out of his own hands.

Stoltenberg added on Thursday (12 October) that NATO has appointed a Special Coordinator for Counterterrorism, who will serve in the Secretary General’s office, a move Ankara had been asking for and linked to the Swedish accession in July.

He repeated he “now” expects the Turkish government to send the protocols to the assembly and work with the parliament for a ratification “as soon as possible” he told reporters.

Until now, optimism of the early days of the deal were gone, seemingly replaced by impatience several NATO diplomats said.

“Sweden is ready to join the Alliance, it is ready to do so today,” US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith told reporters on Tuesday (10 October).

“They are already a committed partner and invitee, they are ready to be a committed full-fledged ally, they will no doubt make the Alliance stronger and safer and more secure.”