Swedish foreign minister says country closing in on NATO membership approval

Sweden’s foreign minister says his country is close to having NATO’s application ratified by one of the last military alliances.

Twenty-eight of NATO’s 30 members have now ratified Sweden’s and Finland’s requests for membership since the two Scandinavian countries submitted their official applications in May. Canada was the first to ratify the request.

But Turkey – along with Hungary – has yet to approve the offer. The Turkish government says that Sweden especially needs to eliminate the Kurds and other groups that Ankara considers terrorists.

New NATO membership must be approved by all current member states.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström told CBC News Network Rosemary Barton Live in the interview airing Sunday that the sticking points with Turkey are almost resolved.

“We are now very close to the time when the Turkish parliament will start the ratification process,” Billström told host Rosemary Barton.

Sweden, Finland and Turkey signed a trilateral memorandum at the NATO summit in June that paved the way for the Turkish government to sign the two applications.

Billström said his country had “absolutely” supported parts of the agreement, but he noted that the provisions needed to be in line with Sweden’s constitution after recent push-back from Turkey.

Pro-Kurdish and anti-NATO groups have complicated matters for the Swedish government by staging anti-Turkish demonstrations that have infuriated the Turkish government, including an effigy of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that was briefly hung outside Stockholm city hall earlier this month.

The Turkish government has called for an investigation into the protests, saying they are racism and hate crimes. Prosecutors in Sweden have so far said they will not open an investigation.

On Saturday, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar canceled a visit to his Swedish counterpart scheduled for this month, citing “disgusting” anti-Turkish demonstrations in Sweden.

The meeting no longer had “any importance or point,” Akar said.

NATO application response to Russia’s war in Ukraine

Sweden and Finland abandoned decades of non-alignment and applied to join NATO after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The reason why we are so interested in participating is because of the deteriorating security situation in our neighborhood,” said Billström.

Dan Rice, an American military expert who is now a special adviser to Ukraine’s chief of forces, said that providing security in the region was why NATO was formed in the first place.

“I think this is an incredible and wonderful example of NATO coming together to accomplish the mission it was formed in 1949,” Rice said. Rosemary Barton Live in a separate interview airing Sunday.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told CBC News Network Power & Politics there is that the Russian invasion has strengthened NATO.

“Vladimir Putin hopes to destroy NATO as a defense alliance, and what we’re seeing is NATO coming together and two new countries applying to join NATO as a direct response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” he said.