Turkey’s parliament has passed a bill on ratification of Sweden’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, after MPs agreed on Sweden to become the 32nd NATO member, putting Stockholm a “step closer” to becoming a full member of the US-led Western military alliance.
“Today we are one step closer to becoming a full member of NATO,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday.
Today we are one step closer to becoming a full member of NATO. Positive that the Grand General Assembly of Türkiye has voted in favour of Sweden’s NATO accession.
— SwedishPM (@SwedishPM) January 23, 2024
The parliament’s decision will come into force after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signs a corresponding decree, which will be published in the government’s official journal.
Hungary, whose prime minister Viktor Orban has friendly relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, remains the only NATO country that has not ratified Sweden’s application to join.
Last week, the high levels of the Swedish government and defense forces issued a warning to prepare people for the possibility of a Russian attack on the country and asked citizens to be prepared for the possibility of war, causing Swedes to panic and criticize the country’s leaders.
Taking notice of the call from officials, a multitude of people heeded this caution seriously, causing mass panic, and flocked their way to the market in order to procure fuel and bundles of indispensable and crucial provisions “crisis kit”.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia had no problems with Finland and Sweden and that their accession to NATO did not pose an immediate threat, but the expansion of military infrastructure in these territories “will cause a response”.
“As for the expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance: yes, this is a problem that is being created, in my opinion, quite artificially in the foreign policy interests of the United States,” Putin was quoted as saying.
“Russia has no problems (with Sweden and Finland), but the expansion of military infrastructure on the territory of this region will certainly cause our response,” he said, stressing that the actions of the Scandinavian states could aggravate “an already difficult situation in the sphere of international security.”
Turkey and Hungary maintain better relations with Russia, more than any other member state of the US-led Western military alliance.
