The Czech parliament approves the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO
The Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic overwhelmingly approved Sweden’s and Finland’s upcoming accession to NATO, Deutsche Welle reports, citing a message on the country’s parliament’s website.
Thus, both chambers of Czech legislators voted for the enlargement of the North Atlantic Alliance. Earlier, on August 10, the Czech Senate also almost unanimously approved the accession of both Scandinavian countries to NATO. Now the protocols of ratification of the agreements must be signed by Czech President Milos Zeman. His representative has already said that Zeman supports plans to expand the alliance.
Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to NATO requires approval from all of its 30 member states. In the past, the applications have been approved by the authorities in the US, Germany, France and 19 other NATO states. The Finnish president admitted at the beginning of August that the ratification of the protocols went even faster than expected.
Turkey’s position has become the main obstacle to Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to NATO. This country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has repeatedly accused Stockholm and Helsinki of supporting Kurdish armed groups, which Ankara considers terrorists, as well as imposing sanctions on Turkey against the supply of defense products after the start of a military operation against the Kurds in Syria in 2019.
At the end of June, at the NATO summit, the parties managed to reach an agreement, and they signed a joint memorandum in which Ankara promised to support Sweden’s and Finland’s aspirations for membership in NATO.
Erdogan’s office then reported that Turkey got what it wanted from both northern European states: Helsinki and Stockholm pledged full cooperation in the fight against the PKK and its allies, and also agreed to lift the arms embargo against Turkey.
Erdogan has since repeatedly stressed that if Finland and Sweden do not fulfill their promises, including handing over PKK members on their territory to Ankara and amending legislation on terrorist organizations, the Turkish parliament will not ratify their applications. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on August 11 that Sweden and Finland have not yet fulfilled their obligations.