In the middle of July this year, the 31 military members (NATO) will hold their annual summit in Lithuania. To prepare for the summit, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met with US President Joe Biden to discuss the summit’s agenda.
The two leaders discussed the importance of Western support for Ukraine. Stoltenberg told Biden that he “hopes to welcome Sweden to full NATO membership as soon as possible.”
At their joint press conference on June 13, Biden and Stoltenberg did not mention Ukraine’s membership in NATO, although both hope that Sweden will become a member. There are two faces that he warned about the president of Ukraine.
Germany is cautious about Ukraine joining NATO, but France is showing full support for Ukraine.
Finland has joined NATO, but Sweden is still:
In May 2022, Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO, which consists of thirty countries (the last to join was North Macedonia in 2020).
At the time, Stoltenberg said of the requests, “It’s great to see you both in the coalition.” Indeed, it was widely expected that these requests would be fast-tracked and that all four Scandinavian countries would be included in NATO’s military camp. Both Norway and Denmark were founding members in 1949 (Denmark’s accession was particularly necessary so that the United States could establish a larger base
located at the Greenland-Pituffik Space Base, the northern military base of the United States – 1951, displacing the local Inuit population).
A year later—April 4, 2023—NATO welcomed Finland into the alliance. “Joining NATO is good for Finland,” Stoltenberg said.
“It’s good for Nordic security, and it’s good for NATO as a whole.”
Finland shares a very long (832-mile) border with Russia, the longest border with either the European Union or NATO. By joining NATO, Finland doubled NATO’s border with Russia.
Finland has begun building border fences along the “most dangerous areas,” especially where immigrants from Russia might try to cross.
Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö, who spoke at the welcoming ceremony in Finland, said that his country’s membership is not complete and that Sweden is missing. Standing next to it, NATO’s Stoltenberg said, “I hope to also welcome Sweden as soon as possible.”
Why is Sweden denied joining the Western military alliance?
In 1949, when NATO was founded, the decision-making principle adopted by members was “consensus,” which meant that all countries agreed on any decision; This consensus decision is particularly relevant to the question of membership.
Two NATO members – Hungary and Turkey – approved Finland’s entry into NATO but blocked Sweden’s. The fact that they allowed NATO to welcome Finland, which – unlike Sweden – has a direct border with Russia, shows that it is not the war in Ukraine that is bothering these two countries. They have other problems and differences with Sweden.
The conflict between Sweden and the two countries:
At a press conference in Washington with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO’s Stoltenberg, Vivian Salama of the Wall Street Journal asked, “Are you concerned that Turkey is increasing the disruption of the alliance?” Blinken and Stoltenberg both sidestepped the question, prompting CNN’s Kylie Atwood to ask directly about Sweden’s NATO membership.
Stoltenberg clearly mentioned Turkey’s concern about the presence of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Sweden. “All NATO allies are of course ready to sit down and discuss these concerns, including Turkey’s threats to the PKK,” Stoltenberg said.
In 2009, when Sweden held the presidency of the European Council, the prime minister at the time, Fredrik Reinfeldt, promised to push Turkey to join the European Union.
The relationship at that time, was difficult. Turkey’s war in recent years against the Kurdish minority living in the southeast of the country and northern Syria has stirred up the Kurdish community in exile in Sweden.
The protests that took place in the city of Stockholm were very angry with the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who called the Swedish ambassador to Ankara many times to complain about these protests. When Erdogan’s portrait was burned by the Rojava Committee in Sweden, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström tweeted, “Photographing a popularly elected president is deplorable.” This statement is not enough. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said his country has weak “anti-terror” laws and his government is in talks with Ankara to see what can be done.
On his way to Azerbaijan on June 14, Erdogan ruled out the possibility of Sweden joining NATO this July.
In May 2023, Hungarian President Viktor Orban went to Doha to attend the Qatar Economic Forum. He was asked why his ruling coalition, Fidesz-KDNP, which controls parliament (135 out of 199 seats), refuses to approve Sweden’s entry into NATO.
Orban openly stated that he will not withdraw because “Sweden unfairly expresses a harmful opinion about the state of democracy and the rule of law in Hungary.
Orban has criticized Sweden for its support for a September 2022 EU parliamentary report that described Hungary’s political system as “a hybrid system with parliamentary autonomy.” Until Sweden reverses this attitude, Budapest will stand by its decision that it will not allow it to join NATO.
