The Swedish chancellor said her country was getting closer and closer to ratifying NATO’s request for one of the last strongholds of the military alliance.
Twenty-eight of NATO’s current 30 members have approved membership applications from Sweden and Finland since the two Scandinavian countries submitted formal applications in May. Canada was the first to endorse the demands.
But Turkey – along with Hungary – has yet to accept the proposals. The Turkish government has said Sweden needs to be particularly tough on Kurds and other groups that Ankara considers terrorists.
New NATO membership must be approved by all existing member states.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström told CBC News Rosemary Barton Live In an interview broadcast on Sunday, the points of contention with Turkey were all but resolved.
Rosemary Barton Live chats with Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström in her first Canadian interview on the NATO ratification process in Sweden and Finland. Turkey and Hungary block its accession to the military alliance.
“We are now very close to the time when it is time for the Turkish parliament to start the ratification process,” Billstrom told host Rosemary Barton.
Sweden, Finland and Turkey signed a trilateral memorandum at a NATO summit in June, setting the stage for the Turkish government to sign both orders.
Billstrom said his country “fully” supports its part of the deal, but noted its provisions must align with Sweden’s constitution after Turkey’s recent backlash.
Pro-Kurdish and anti-NATO groups have complicated matters for the Swedish government by staging anti-Turkish protests that have angered the Turkish government, including an effigy of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan briefly hanging outside the city hall in Stockholm earlier this month.
The Turkish government has called for an investigation into the protest, saying it is racism and a hate crime. Swedish prosecutors have so far said they will not open an investigation.
Rosemary Barton Live speaks with Dan Rice, Special Advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, for her assessment of the war and the growing pressure on Germany to allow the export of its Leopard 2 tanks.
On Saturday, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar canceled a visit by his Swedish counterpart scheduled for later in the month, citing what he called “disgusting” anti-Turkish protests in Sweden.
Akar said the meeting no longer had “meaning or purpose”.
NATO demands response to Russia’s war on Ukraine
Sweden and Finland abandoned decades of non-alignment and applied to join NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine.
“The reason we are so interested in joining is the deteriorating security situation in our region,” Billstrom said.
Dan Rice, a US military expert who is currently a special adviser to the commander of Ukrainian forces, said security in the region was exactly why NATO was originally created.
“I think it’s a wonderful example of NATO coming together to finally fulfill the mission that was forged in 1949,” Rice said. Rosemary Barton Live In a separate interview that aired on Sunday.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told CBC News power politics On Thursday, the Russian invasion strengthened NATO.
“Vladimir Putin expected to break up NATO as a defensive alliance and instead what we saw was NATO coming together and two new countries asking to join NATO in response directly to Russia’s attempt to invade Ukraine,” he said.
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