Sweden’s NATO Membership Just ‘A Few Weeks Away’

SWEDEN’S delayed application to join NATO could be ratified in the next few weeks.

According to a government source, the process that has been marred by setbacks and disappointments is now only ‘a few weeks’ away from seeing Sweden become a full member of the Alliance, wrote expressen.se on Saturday, October 21.

‘We expect Turkey’s ratification of Sweden’s application to begin shortly, and that it should be ready within a few weeks’, the source allegedly told the news outlet.

Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO Secretary-General, announced on Friday that he would be visiting Stockholm on Tuesday next week. He will meet with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson as well as the Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström and Defence Minister Pål Jonson.

Erdogan said Sweden’s ratification depended on US sale of F16 planes to Turkey

In September, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan clarified something that many believed, but which had previously remained unspoken.

He said that Sweden’s ratification depended on the US sale of F16 planes to Turkey, something which meant a breakthrough, according to the government.

During the autumn, there has also been a noticeable change in the tone from both NATO’s leadership and the defence alliance’s other member countries.

Since the meeting in Vilnius last July, where Erdogan agreed to back Sweden’s accession to the Alliance, the message towards Turkey has been much sharper, and NATO has taken a much more active role, claimed the source.

Ankara kept making fresh demands that delayed the process

Several times in the past, just when it looked as though things were moving in the right direction, officials in Ankara produced a fresh batch of demands. The Koran burnings have also further complicated the process.

The government source assured the aforementioned news outlet that the Swedish flag will be raised at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels when the NATO’s foreign ministers’ meeting is held at the end of November.