The issue is now going to the vote of the Turkish parliament. The voting date has not yet been decided.
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Turkish Parliament has today, Tuesday, decided to support Sweden’s NATO membership, says, among other things, the Swedish Broadcasting Company SVT.
The matter can now proceed to a parliamentary vote. The voting date has not yet been decided.
– We are satisfied that the Turkish Foreign Affairs Committee has accepted Sweden’s NATO application. We look forward to NATO membership, says the Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström messaging service in X.
The reasons for the approved bill state that Sweden has progressed since the NATO summit in July to the point where Turkey can cooperate with it.
The ratification of Sweden’s membership can be voted on in the general session of the Turkish Parliament only now that the committee has approved the bill.
According to SVT, the foreign affairs committee can ask the parliament to decide on the matter either urgently, primarily or “in time”. If it is decided to deal with the matter urgently, Turkey can ratify Sweden’s membership still this year or at the beginning of next year, says SVT.
Of the NATO countries, only Turkey and Hungary have not yet accepted Sweden’s membership.
Erdoğan wants fighter jets from the US
Sweden’s NATO ratification has been linked to Turkey’s fighter jet deals with the US, and so has the president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has spoken about this more and more openly. He has also highlighted the fact that Canada will waive the arms export restrictions it imposed on Turkey.
– Positive development costs in the United States related to F-16 fighter jets and Canada’s keeping its promises accelerate our parliament’s positive view of Sweden’s NATO membership, Erdogan said earlier this month, according to news agency AFP.
Turkey wants to buy modern F-16 fighter jets from the United States, with which Turkey wants to update the military equipment of its air force, and apparently sees Sweden as a negotiating tool.
The media close to Erdogan, the NTV news channel and Türkiye Gazetesi, claimed on Friday that the US president Joe Biden would have agreed to the fact that negotiations on fighter jet sales would be conducted at the same pace as Sweden’s NATO process.
Biden has publicly promised to promote trade, but the US Congress has opposed the issue. The Congress has been concerned about, among other things, Turkey’s human rights violations and tensions with neighboring Greece.
Sources: AP, Reuters, STT