Turkey: Sweden still steps away from NATO membership
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said today that Sweden still has steps to take before NATO membership. The statement comes a day after Finland officially joined the North Atlantic Alliance, according to Digi24.
The Turkish official also told the press that he had discussed Sweden's NATO candidacy and the issue of selling US F-16 fighter jets to Turkey with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Brussels.
Sweden applied for NATO membership at the same time as Finland in May last year, three months after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and signed a protocol to join the alliance in July.
Sweden's accession has been ratified by all NATO members except Turkey and Hungary. Ankara insists that the authorities in Stockholm take some measures to combat terrorism, particularly the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Budapest officially supports ratification of NATO enlargement at government level, but the parliamentary process has so far been limited to Finland. The spring session of the Hungarian parliament ends on 15 June.
Finland became the 31st member of the North Atlantic Alliance on Tuesday following a ceremony at NATO headquarters where it deposited its instrument of accession, which was submitted to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the guardian state representative of the founding treaty, reports Agerpres. The final step before Finland's accession took place on Tuesday at Alliance headquarters, where Turkey, the last to ratify the Nordic state's accession, handed over the documents to US representatives.
