{"id":5417,"date":"2024-02-07T00:00:49","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T00:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/?p=5417"},"modified":"2026-02-22T21:46:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T21:46:30","slug":"what-to-know-about-swedens-road-to-nato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/inter\/2024\/02\/07\/what-to-know-about-swedens-road-to-nato\/","title":{"rendered":"What to know about Sweden\u2019s road to NATO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Sweden applied to join NATO, discontinuing its traditional neutrality. However, T\u00fcrkiye, along with Hungary, had withheld its approval. <\/span><\/p>\n

After 20 months of delays, T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s parliament approved Sweden’s NATO membership bid on Tuesday 23rd January 2024, following more than four hours of debate. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, Nationalist Movement Party allies, and the main opposition Republican People\u2019s Party voted 287-55 in favour of the bid in the general assembly. <\/span><\/p>\n

NATO\u2019s Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, welcomed the Turkish parliament’s decision and called Hungary to do the same. <\/span>Earlier on Tuesday, the Hungarian Prime Minister, <\/span>Viktor Orb\u00e1n,<\/span> hinted at progress by inviting Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, to visit for negotiations regarding Hungarian support for Sweden.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kristersson reacted promptly to the news: <\/span>\u201cToday we are one step closer to becoming a full member of NATO. Positive that the Grand General Assembly of T\u00fcrkiye has voted in favour of Sweden\u2019s NATO accession.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

T\u00fcrkiye and Hungary originally raised objections to Sweden\u2019s application, consequently delaying Sweden\u2019s acceptance into NATO. This is due to NATO\u2019s requirement for unanimous votes from their members. <\/span><\/p>\n

The postponement in Sweden\u2019s accession to NATO has lasted nearly two years, a result of T\u00fcrkiye accusing Sweden of being too lenient towards groups that they regard as security threats and having been seeking concessions from Stockholm. T\u00fcrkiye had also been angered by a series of demonstrations by supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, as well as Quran-burning protests in Sweden that angered Muslim communities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ankara, the capital of T\u00fcrkiye, pressed Stockholm to toughen its stance on members of the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party based in Sweden, whom the US, the EU and T\u00fcrkiye deem a terrorist group. From an international standpoint, Western allies had been frustrated by these delays in Sweden\u2019s application, thus the news of their acceptance was gladly received.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Following the decision, the National Security Adviser for the United States, Jake Sullivan, posted on X<\/em>, formally Twitter<\/em>: <\/span>“This has been an important priority for POTUS [President of the United States]. Sweden is a strong, capable defence partner whose membership in NATO will make the US and the Alliance safer and stronger.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Sweden has already started the NATO integration process and signed a deal with the US, giving full access to 17 of Sweden\u2019s military bases.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sweden\u2019s NATO membership will be significant for the Nordic country<\/span>. For NATO, this will provide enhancement of the military alliance’s defences in the Baltic Sea region facing Russia. These events represent a big step forward in Sweden\u2019s path to NATO membership.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Sweden applied to join NATO, discontinuing its traditional neutrality. However, T\u00fcrkiye, along with Hungary, had withheld its approval. After 20 months of delays, T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s parliament approved Sweden’s NATO membership bid on Tuesday 23rd January 2024, following more than four hours of debate. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":5418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1157,1065,1066,1042,622],"wf_post_folders":[247],"class_list":{"0":"post-5417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-inter","8":"tag-hungary","9":"tag-nato","10":"tag-russia","11":"tag-sweden","12":"tag-ukraine"},"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Emily Reid","author_link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/author\/emily-reid\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/natoflag-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["International<\/a>"],"unlinked":["International<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Hungary<\/a>","nato<\/a>","russia<\/a>","Sweden<\/a>","Ukraine<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Hungary<\/span>","nato<\/span>","russia<\/span>","Sweden<\/span>","Ukraine<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 3 years ago","modified":"Updated 6 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 7 February 2024","modified":"Updated on 22 February 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 7 February 2024 00:00","modified":"Updated on 22 February 2026 21:46"},"featured_img_caption":"photo by Sergeant Paul Shaw via Flickr","series_order":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5417"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6953,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5417\/revisions\/6953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5417"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=5417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}