NATO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has agreed to back Sweden’s NATO membership after refusing to back Sweden’s bid for over a year. As a member of Alliance Turkey has veto power to deny a country’s bid and it held out Sweden’s bid as a retaliation against Helsinki’s sheltering of Kurdish Nationalists. Turkey had also shown its resentment over Sweden’s decision to allow burning of Quran during Eid-al Adha as a protest by a Iraqi refugee.
On Monday Eedogan had tried to link Sweden’s approval with Turkish cause to reopen its bid to join the European Union. The demand was immediately shot down by some EU officials but later NATO stated that Sweden would actively support efforts to “reinvigorate Turkey’s EU accession process” which would include “modernisation of the EU-Türkiye customs union and visa liberalisation”.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg “Completing Sweden’s accession to NATO is a historic step that benefits the security of all NATO allies at this critical time. It makes us all stronger and safer.”
“Historic Step”
Sweden will now become the 32nd member of military alliance based out in Europe and North America. The last member to join NATO was Sweden’s Nordic neighbor Finland, which shares the longest border of any NATO country with Russia. The NATO chief has termed Sweden’s joining as a “historic step”. Although he added that it still isn’t clear when will the induction happen as approval from Turkish Parliament is still pending.
US President Joe Biden expressed his delight with Erdogan’s ‘swift action’. A statement from the White House read “I stand ready to work with President Erdogan and Turkey on enhancing defence and deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic area. I look forward to welcoming Prime Minister Kristersson and Sweden as our 32nd Nato ally.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of UK described the decision as a leap in ensuring security of the whole continent.
The approval for Sweden’s membership is still pending in Hungarian Parliament and it is unlikely that the approval bill will be presented any time soon.
No to Ukraine’s bid
The bid for Ukraine to join NATO has been kept at bay by the leadership from US, Germany and France. Ukraine joining NATO immediately mean that any attack on Ukrainian territory would effectively push the whole military alliance to war, as it is mandated by the Article 5 of NATO. US President Joe Biden has said that NATO would only let Ukraine in after the end of conflict with Russia. Ukraine has been making bid to join NATO and EU for a long time which is the primary reason why Russia invaded it to stop the expansion of alliance any further. After the dragged out conflict NATO has expanded further in size and has surrounded even further in the Baltic Sea.
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