Sweden is on the verge of joining NATO: The government in Stockholm had decided to join NATO in view of the the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine already in Ukraine more than a year ago in favor of joining the transatlantic military alliance.but since then Turkey has blocked this project. Now, however, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has surprisingly agreed to Sweden’s plan.

According to information from the presidential office, Erdogan has signed the accession protocol and submitted it to the Grand National Assembly for ratification. Erdogan’s party has a majority there – approval is therefore considered very likely. What exactly made Erdogan give in has not yet been revealed. However, following a meeting with the Swedish head of government Ulf Kristersson, the Turkish president had actually already pledged to abandon his blockade stance before the NATO summit in Vilnius in July. Since then, however, the matter has come to a standstill again.

In the past, Turkey’s refusal to join NATO was justified by what it saw as Stockholm’s “inadequate efforts” against terrorist organizations. Ankara is primarily concerned with the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG. Kristersson described it as “good news” that Erdogan had presented the ratification document to the Turkish parliament. “We look forward to becoming a member of NATO,” Kristersson said on Twitter (X). https://militaeraktuell.at/das-bundesheer-laedt-zur-grossen-leistungsschau-2024/ In light of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Sweden applied for NATO membership together with Finland in May 2022. Finland was welcomed as the 31st member of the alliance at the beginning of April. However, only 29 of the 31 current NATO members have given their approval for Sweden’s accession – Turkey and Hungary are still missing. If the Turkish parliament approves in the near future, Sweden’s admission to the defense alliance will therefore depend on Hungary.

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