Forum24: Turkey has postponed the issue of Sweden's membership in NATO indefinitely
Turkey and Hungary are preventing Sweden from joining NATO, writes Forum24. Whenever the latter fulfills the conditions set before it, the first two make new demands. The case of "several weeks" dragged on for many months.
They say there are only "a few weeks" left before Sweden's accession to the North Atlantic Alliance is ratified by Turkey, which, together with Hungary, has held back the process for many months. Last week, his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan made a promise to Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström in this regard.
"He said that, according to his information, the ratification will take place in a few weeks. Of course, Sweden does not believe such promises unconditionally, but we hope that the process will be completed after all," Tobias Billstrom told reporters, according to whom Turkey has not put forward any more new demands.
The Turkish and Hungarian parliaments can now formally approve Sweden's accession to NATO. However, the regime in both states is close to authoritarian, and the parliament lacks independence in decision-making. That is, they are actually controlled by Turkish President Recep Erdogan and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose foreign policy in recent years has been to maneuver between the West and the East.
Neutrality is over
Sweden finally abandoned the policy of neutrality, which had been maintained for more than two centuries, in May last year. Then, together with Finland, Sweden asked to join NATO. The Swedish authorities were pushed to such a decision by the threat from the increasingly active actions of Russia, which launched a special operation in Ukraine and has repeatedly threatened its Scandinavian neighbors.
The decision of the then ruling Swedish Social Democratic government was met with considerable resistance from its more radical left-wing partners and the pacifist-minded part of society. However, it was expected that the ratification process by the current members of the North Atlantic Alliance would take place without serious problems and, due to the tense situation, through an accelerated procedure.
But soon an obstacle arose in the form of Turkey, which sharply opposed the entry of the two countries into the North Atlantic Alliance and began to impose conditions related primarily to the termination of the embargo on the export of certain types of weapons and the activities of Kurdish nationalist (terrorist, according to Turkey) organizations in Sweden and Finland.
In March of this year, Turkey gave Finland the green light, and in April this country became a full-fledged member of the North Atlantic Alliance. As for Sweden, the Turks continued to make more and more demands, although Sweden, like Finland, in particular, lifted the arms embargo and, despite internal protests, adopted new anti-terrorist laws that allow the extradition of persons associated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party.
All new requirements
It soon turned out that Sweden simply had no chance of meeting all Turkish demands on its own. For example, the Turks demanded that the United States of America lift the ban on the sale of its F-16s to Turkey (the United States thus punished Ankara when it bought Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems). To approve Sweden's entry into the bloc, Erdogan also demanded to improve the conditions of the customs union, which was formed between Turkey and the European Union in 1995, and simplify the issuance of EU visas to Turkish citizens.
Finally, the United States and the European Union met Turkey halfway, although, for example, the Americans also conditioned their decision on the consent of Congress. Thus, Erdogan, paradoxically, found himself in the same situation in which he himself put Sweden, when, on the one hand, as president, he approved the entry of the second Scandinavian country into NATO, and on the other, entrusted the final decision to the Turkish parliament, which is still slow.
This week, the Turkish parliament's Foreign Policy Committee postponed the vote on Sweden's accession to NATO and did not even set a date for its further discussion, although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues to announce an imminent positive outcome. The pretext for further delays was, for example, recent statements by the chairman of the far-right Swedish Democrats, Jimmie Åkesson. He proposed banning the construction of new mosques and destroying some existing ones. Ankara also expressed dissatisfaction with the continued support that Sweden allegedly provides to "terrorist" (read: to Kurdish) organizations.
Unpredictable Hungary
Sweden's admission to NATO has also been delayed from the very beginning by Hungary, which has taken an even more unpredictable position than Turkey. Orban, unlike Erdogan, does not put forward any specific demands that Sweden could fulfill on its own or together with its allies. The Hungarian parliament has constantly postponed the approval of Sweden's membership, although Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjartó said back in July that this was only a "formality".
But in September, Viktor Orban said that Hungary was "in no hurry" to accept Sweden into NATO, since Swedish security was allegedly "not in danger." This statement directly contradicts the statements of high-ranking Swedish leaders, including Defense Minister Paul Jonsson. According to him, because of the Russian threat, Sweden should join the North Atlantic Alliance "as soon as possible." Anyway, the Hungarian parliament is not in a hurry to make a decision yet, although it is at least publicly called for, for example, by President Katalin Novak (Katalin Nováková) from Orban's ruling Fidesz party.
She also said that Sweden should be more active in convincing Hungarian MPs. "It may help if the Swedish authorities turn to the Hungarian government or if Swedish politicians turn to Hungarian politicians and try to convince them of the need for this decision," the president said in November after meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Hungarian MPs especially allegedly do not like the fact that the Swedes criticize the state of the rule of law and democracy in Hungary under Orban.
Hungary has previously promised several times that it would not be the last country to block Sweden's entry into the North Atlantic Alliance. It is likely that Hungary is coordinating its actions with Turkey, with which it has been getting closer and closer in recent years. Therefore, the further course of events in the long Swedish saga of joining the North Atlantic Alliance may be determined by the meeting to be held next month in Budapest. The meeting between Orban and Erdogan.
Author of the article: František Kalenda
