The Turkish parliament voted in favor of Sweden becoming a member of NATO on Tuesday, following a 20-month impasse on account of tensions between Ankara and Stockholm.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson praised the Turkish lawmakers. “At this time we’re one step nearer to turning into a full member of NATO. Optimistic that the Grand Basic Meeting of Türkiye has voted in favor of Sweden’s NATO accession,” Kristersson wrote on X (previously Twitter).
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is predicted to signal the invoice inside days, in line with the BBC. It would depart Hungary as the ultimate member of the 31-nation alliance to approve Sweden’s bid.
Ankara had beforehand refused to greenlight the accession of Sweden, demanding that the Nordic nation toughen its stance on the Kurdistan Employees’ Celebration (PKK), which Türkiye considers a terrorist group. Türkiye has accused the Swedish authorities of harboring Kurdish activists with ties to the PKK and demanded their extradition.
Along with its neighbor Finland, Sweden utilized to hitch the US-led bloc in Might of 2022, dropping the long-standing coverage of non-alignment three months after Russia had launched its navy operation in Ukraine.
Finland formally grew to become a NATO member in April 2023. With Helsinki’s membership, the Western alliance roughly doubled the size of its border with Russia.
Swedish politicians have urged the general public to arrange for doable escalation, with Overseas Minister Tobias Billstrom warning a few “drawn-out confrontation” with Moscow.
All of this comes as NATO is planning its largest conflict video games in many years. The drill dubbed ‘Steadfast Defender 2024’ will run from February to Might, involving round 90,000 troops from all 31 member states and Sweden, NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Europe Christopher Cavoli introduced final week.
Moscow has for many years insisted that NATO’s continued enlargement in direction of its borders poses a menace to its nationwide safety and cites the alliance’s ties with Ukraine as one of many root causes of the present battle.
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