Sweden’s foreign minister says that the country is getting close to accepting NATO membership
Sweden’s foreign minister says his country is getting close to having its NATO application ratified by one of the military alliance’s last members.
Twenty-eight of NATO’s 30 current members have ratified both Sweden’s and Finland’s applications for membership since the two Scandinavian countries submitted formal applications in May. Canada was the first to ratify the applications.
But Turkey – along with Hungary – has yet to approve the bids. The Turkish government has said that Sweden, in particular, must crack down on Kurdish and other groups that Ankara considers terrorists.
New NATO membership must be approved by all current member states.
This is what Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström says to the CBC News Network Rosemary Barton Live in an interview broadcast last Sunday that the problem with Turkey is almost solved.
“We are now very close to the time when it is time for the Turkish parliament to begin the ratification process,” Billstrom told host Rosemary Barton.
Sweden, Finland and Turkey signed a trilateral memorandum at the NATO summit in June that set a path for the Turkish government to sign the two applications.
Billström said his country has “thoroughly” upheld its part of that agreement, but he noted that its provisions must fall in line with Sweden’s constitution after recent push-back from Turkey.
Pro-Kurdish and anti-NATO groups have complicated matters for the Swedish government by organizing anti-Turkey demonstrations that have angered the Turkish government, including a picture of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that was briefly hung outside Stockholm City Hall earlier this month.
The Turkish government has demanded an investigation into the protest, saying it constituted racism and a hate crime. Prosecutors in Sweden have so far said they will not open an investigation.
On Saturday, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar canceled a visit by his Swedish counterpart that was planned for later this month, citing what he described as “disgusting” anti-Turkish demonstrations in Sweden.
The meeting no longer had “any meaning or point,” Akar said.
NATO calls for a response to Russia’s war on Ukraine
Sweden and Finland abandoned decades of non-alignment and applied to join NATO after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The reason we are so anxious to join is because of the deteriorating security situation in our neighborhood,” Billstrom said.
Dan Rice, an American military expert who currently acts as a special adviser to the head of the Ukrainian forces, said that security in the region is exactly why NATO was originally formed.
“I think it’s an outstanding and good example of NATO coming together to finally fulfill the mission it was created in 1949,” Rice told Rosemary Barton Live in a separate interview that airs on Sunday.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told the CBC News Network Power & Politics on Thursday that Russia’s invasion has strengthened NATO.
“Vladimir Putin hoped to split NATO as a defensive alliance, and instead what we have seen is NATO coming together and two new countries applying to join NATO as a direct response to Russia’s attempted invasion of Ukraine,” said he.