ANKARA, 23 Jan: Turkish legislators scheduled a long-delayed vote Tuesday on Sweden\u2019s bid to join NATO, in a step that could remove a major hurdle for the previously nonaligned Nordic country\u2019s entry into the military alliance.
\nTurkey, a NATO member, has been dragging its feet on ratifying Sweden\u2019s accession for more than a year, accusing the country of being too lenient toward groups it regards as security threats. It has been seeking concessions from Sweden, including a tougher stance toward Kurdish militants and members of a network that Ankara blames for a failed coup in 2016.
\nTurkey has also been angered by a series of demonstrations by supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party in Sweden as well as Quran-burning protests that roiled Muslim countries.
\nLast month, parliament\u2019s foreign affairs committee gave its consent to Sweden\u2019s bid in the first stage of the legislative process, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent its accession protocol to lawmakers for approval.
\nErdogan\u2019s ruling party and its nationalist allies command a majority in parliament and the protocol was expected to be approved later on Tuesday. It will come into effect after its publication in the country\u2019s Official Gazette, which was expected to be swift. Turkey\u2019s main opposition party also supports Sweden\u2019s membership in the alliance.
\nArguing in favor of Sweden\u2019s membership last month, Deputy Foreign Minister Burak Akcapar cited steps Sweden had taken to meet Turkish demands, including lifting restrictions on defense industry sales and amending anti-terrorism laws.
\nErdogan has linked ratification of Sweden\u2019s NATO membership to the U.S. Congress\u2019 approval of a Turkish request to purchase 40 new F-16 fighter jets and kits to modernize Turkey\u2019s existing fleet. He has also urged Canada and other NATO allies to lift arms embargoes on Turkey.
\nSweden and Finland abandoned their traditional positions of military nonalignment to seek protection under NATO\u2019s security umbrella, following Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Finland joined the alliance in April, becoming NATO\u2019s 31st member, after Turkey\u2019s parliament ratified the Nordic country\u2019s bid.
\nHungary has also stalled Sweden\u2019s bid, alleging that Swedish politicians have told \u201cblatant lies\u201d about the condition of Hungary\u2019s democracy. Hungary has said it would not be the last to approve accession, although it was not clear when the Hungarian parlia-ment intends to hold a vote.
\nHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n announced Tuesday that he sent a letter to his Swedish counterpart, Ulf Kristersson, inviting him to Budapest to discuss Sweden\u2019s accession into the NATO military alliance. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ANKARA, 23 Jan: Turkish legislators scheduled a long-delayed vote Tuesday on Sweden\u2019s bid to join NATO, in a step that could remove a major hurdle for the previously nonaligned Nordic country\u2019s entry into the military alliance. Turkey, a NATO member, has been dragging its feet on ratifying Sweden\u2019s accession for more than a year, accusing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-233128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}