President Erdoğan signs Protocol on Sweden’s NATO Accession

23 October, 2023 Military of Sweden. Photo from open sources Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan referred the protocol on Sweden's NATO Accession to the Grand National Assembly of Turkiye.

Erdogan's press service reported on this. The report says that the Turkish President signed a protocol on Sweden's NATO Accession on October 23, 2023. The document was submitted to the Grand National Assembly of Turkiye for consideration.

Turkiye and Hungary remain the only NATO countries that have not ratified Sweden's membership application.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Erdogan said last month that Sweden "did not fulfill the promises made to Turkiye" and would not receive its support for joining NATO. As previously reported, after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO. In April 2023, Finland officially became a member of the Alliance, but there are certain nuances with Sweden's accession to the organization.

This country's application was blocked by Turkiye and Hungary. Turkiye demands that Sweden take more steps to suppress the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

PKK fighters. Photo credits: rfi.fr

Erdogan issued an ultimatum and said that Turkiye would approve Sweden's request only if Stockholm extradited 130 "terrorists" to Ankara.

In September, the Swedish government decided to increase the country's defense budget to reach NATO's common spending guidelines.