Sweden is expected to be officially accepted into NATO next month. In a letter to NATO member states, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg recommended that this happen during the meeting of foreign ministers on November 28 and 29, 2023.
Sweden originally hoped to join NATO as early as the summer of 2022, but Turkey blocked its accession due to Ankara’s concerns about Stockholm’s support for groups that Turkey considers terrorist. Sweden adopted a new anti-terrorist law this year, and the Turkish president announced last July that he no longer objected to Sweden joining NATO.
The Turkish parliament has not yet scheduled a vote on Sweden’s membership in NATO. The press department of the Hungarian Parliament recently stated that Sweden’s entry into the alliance must also be approved by Hungary, but that Budapest would speed up the ratification process if Stockholm stopped criticizing the state of democracy in Hungary.
Sweden, along with neighboring Finland, abandoned its longstanding military neutrality after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Finland joined NATO at the beginning of April and became its 31st member country.
