1 of 2 | Members of Turkey’s parliament voted Tuesday to approve Sweden’s membership bid to join NATO, at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in Ankara. Hungary is now the only member state that has not ratified Sweden’s accession to the military alliance. Photo by Necati Savas/EPA-EFE
Jan. 23 (UPI) — Sweden moved one step closer to joining NATO on Tuesday, as the Turkish parliament voted to approve the Nordic country’s bid to join the military alliance.
Turkey’s parliamentary vote to approve Sweden’s NATO membership bid was 287 to 55, with four abstentions. The protocol will be send to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to be signed into law. Turkey’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee voted to approve Sweden’s NATO membership last month.
“Today we are one step closer to becoming a full member of NATO,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wrote Tuesday after the vote in a post on X. “Positive that the Grand General Assembly of Turkey has voted in favor of Sweden’s NATO accession.”
Hungary now remains the only member state that has not ratified Sweden’s accession.
Earlier Tuesday, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he has invited Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to Hungary to talk about its NATO membership.
“Today, I sent an invitation letter to Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson for a visit to Hungary to negotiate on Sweden’s NATO accession,” Orban said on X.
Kristersson did not immediately offer a public response to Orban’s invitation.
An official for the AK Party, which is led by Erdoğan and holds a shared majority in parliament, told Bloomberg that the legislature will look to receive approval from the legislature to solidify Sweden’s acceptance into NATO.
Orban asserted in December that lawmakers remained cold on the proposition, however, Hungary had pledged to Sweden that it would not lag behind its counterparts in the alliance in approving its accession.
Sweden and Finland placed their bids to join the alliance at the same time to shore up the borders around Ukraine shortly after Russia invaded in 2022.
“Being a full-fledged ally means that if Sweden is under pressure or attack, there is no debate,” said Camille Grand, a former NATO assistant secretary general. “As we see very clearly with Ukraine, you can be the closest NATO partner, but if you’re not an ally, the debate is different.”
Finland became the 31st member of NATO in April 2023, overcoming initial concerns from Turkey.
Sweden’s bid, however, was derailed over conflicts with the two holdouts.
Hungary objected to Stockholm questioning the state of its democracy and Orban’s ongoing ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin since the invasion of Ukraine while Turkey had long frowned on admitting Sweden over its handling of anti-Muslim sentiment there.
The Turkish government bashed Sweden over the past summer for letting the Koran be burned during a protest started by Kurdish supporters.
The incident, and the perceived lack of a response by Sweden’s government, nearly sunk Sweden’s admission and caused Turkey to pause its support.