Turkey’s parliament is widely expected to approve Sweden’s NATO membership bid on Tuesday, clearing the biggest remaining hurdle to expanding the Western military alliance after 20 months of delays.
Turkey’s general assembly, where President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling alliance holds a majority, is set to vote on the application that Sweden first made in 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Once parliament has ratified the move, Erdogan would be expected to sign it into law within days, leaving Hungary as the only member state not to have approved Sweden’s accession.
Hungary had pledged not to be the last ally to ratify, but its parliament is in recess till around mid-February. Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Tuesday he invited his Swedish counterpart to visit and negotiate his country joining the bloc.
“I don’t see any reason to negotiate in the current situation, though … we can have a dialogue and continue to discuss questions,” Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told Swedish news agency TT.
Sweden’s government had no comment on Turkey’s parliamentary process.
Turkey and Hungary maintain better relations with Russia than other members of the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
While opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Turkey has criticised Western sanctions on Moscow, which has cautioned that it would respond if NATO bolstered military infrastructure in the two Nordic states.
Sweden, whose membership bid marked a historic shift in its security policy, would enhance NATO defences in the Baltic Sea region. Ankara’s delays have frustrated some of its Western allies and enabled it to extract some concessions.
