Turkish parliament refuses to speed up Sweden's NATO application
Fuat Oktay, Chairman of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Foreign Affairs Committee (flickr by International Labour Organization ILO)
The Parliament of Türkiye will not expedite the consideration of Sweden's application to join the North Atlantic Alliance, stated the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Fuat Oktay.
According to him, Sweden's NATO accession is just one of the international agreements that Türkiye plans to ratify.
“We will discuss it when the time comes … within the framework of our own priorities… What is urgent for others is not necessarily urgent for [us]," Oktay said.
It is worth noting that the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Turkish parliament must approve Sweden's NATO membership application. After that, it will be brought to a vote in parliament. If the deputies support the initiative, the final step for ratification will be the signature of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Sweden's NATO accession
Sweden applied for NATO membership last year. Since then, all NATO countries have ratified it, except for Türkiye and Hungary.
Recently, Erdogan submitted the application for consideration to the country's parliament.
