US Prez Joe Biden expresses full support for Sweden’s NATO membership: What is Turkey’s opposition to it?

Firstly, what is NATO?

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is a 31-member security alliance comprising countries on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, led by the United States. It was formed in 1949, in the wake of the second World War. This was a period when the rise of these two countries accompanied the relative decline of erstwhile European powers such as the UK, France and Germany.

However, they were in ideological opposition to one another, with the US favouring a capitalistic, liberal democratic model and the USSR moving towards socialism and State control over the economy. The War having led to severe devastation, and the accompanying advent of the nuclear bomb, meant such a rivalry could not escalate into a full-blown war. This led to the ‘Cold’ War, where the battle for dominance manifested itself in the Space race, arms race, and shoring up as many allies as possible.

NATO was thus formed on April 9, 1949. Its centrepiece was the ‘the principle of collective defence’ – the idea that an attack against one or several of its members is considered as an attack against all. So far, Article 5 has been invoked once – in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001. Its members include countries such as the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Greece and Turkey. The latest member to join it was Finland, in April this year.

Why does Sweden want to join NATO?

In May 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine earlier that year, Nordic neighbours Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO. This was a change in their long-held policies of not participating in a formal military alliance.

On its official government website, Sweden said, “It is the Government’s assessment that NATO membership is the best way for Sweden to protect its security in light of the fundamentally changed security environment following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin too announced that Finland must apply to join the NATO military alliance “without delay”.

What’s the process for a country to join NATO?

According to NATO, countries interested in joining NATO must adhere to certain basic political and military standards, such as having “a functioning democratic political system based on a market economy” and the “ability and willingness to make a military contribution to NATO operations.”

Then, formalities for accession take place, where a major step is all the governments of NATO member states ratifying the ‘accession protocols’. This is where Sweden faces a problem.

What are Turkey and Hungary’s objections to Sweden joining NATO?

In May 2022, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blocked an early attempt by NATO to fast-track the applications, saying their membership would make the alliance “a place where representatives of terrorist organisations are concentrated.”

Turkey has accused Sweden of being home to what it categorises as terror organisations or existential threats, from the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Turkey wanted Stockholm and Helsinki to take a tougher line against the PKK and another group it blames for a 2016 coup attempt in Turkey. Sweden denies Turkey’s accusations of harbouring Kurdish terrorists and actively supporting the PKK.

During a NATO summit in June 2022, along with Sweden and Finland, it reached a tri-lateral agreement on how to proceed. Finland and Sweden agreed to work harder to fight terrorism by intensifying work on the extradition and deportation of suspected militants, and Turkey lifted its veto and said the country would seek the extradition of 33 alleged Kurdish fighters and coup plot suspects from both the Nordic countries, Al-Jazeera reported.

In late 2022, the Supreme Court in Sweden blocked the extradition of an exiled Turkish journalist, whom Turkey accuses of being involved in the coup attempt to topple Erdogan. The tensions between Sweden and Turkey began to increase in January after an effigy of Erdogan was hung upside down from a lamppost in Stockholm during a pro-Kurdish demonstration. The talks were suspended following protests on January 21, in which Rasmus Pauldan, leader of a far-right Swedish party Hard Line, burned the Quran in front of the Turkish embassy in Sweden.

With a recent case of burning of the Quran in Sweden, Turkey’s foreign minister said that there are further security concerns and questions about Sweden’s credentials for possible NATO membership.

Minister Hakan Fidan has said, “The fact that the Swedish security system is incapable of preventing provocations and is presenting an image of a (country) that brings problems to NATO — instead of more power — is making us think in terms of the strategic and security aspects.”

Meanwhile, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has spoken against the two countries spreading “outright lies” about the health of democracy and the rule of law in Hungary.