Turkey officially finalized ratification of Sweden’s accession to NATO

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signed a decision of the Turkish parliament ratifying the protocol on Sweden’s accession to the North Atlantic Alliance.

The protocol was published on January 25 in the official gazette of Turkey, which means that it has entered into force. Thus, Turkey has fully endorsed Sweden’s accession to NATO.

On the evening of January 23, after several hours of debate, the Turkish parliament approved the ratification of the protocol on Sweden’s accession to the North Atlantic Alliance.

Sweden has been waiting for more than a year and a half for all NATO member states to approve its application for membership.

In October 2023, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent the ratification protocol to parliament, but it stalled there for a long time as Ankara demanded progress on the issue of providing American F-16 fighter jets.

Hungary, the only country so far to disagree with Sweden’s accession to NATO, has promised that it will not be “the last” in this process.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban invited his Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson to Budapest this week to discuss the application, and the latter recently accepted the invitation.