Sweden parliament passes NATO accession bill

The Swedish parliament this week formally approved the bill that would allow the country to join the NATO alliance. The approval comes as Stockholm waits for the ratification of its application by the remaining two NATO member countries.

The Swedish parliament on Wednesday formally approved the country’s accession into NATO once its application was ratified by all 30 members of the alliance. Sweden and Finland filed a joint application to join NATO last year as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, the process of ratification ran into objections by Turkey, accusing the two countries of harboring groups it refers to as terrorists, while Hungary has yet to ratify the applications.

The bill passed the Swedish parliament on a near-unanimous vote, with 296 members voting in favor while 37 were opposed. The small Left Party and the Greens Party were the ones who opposed the deal. Should Sweden be accepted into NATO, it would end its long-running history of military non-alignment.

Turkey has sought to demand Sweden’s extradition of the so-called terrorist groups in order to gain its approval.

Swedish foreign minister Tobias Billstrom told parliament that he was optimistic about the country’s chances to join the alliance by the time NATO holds its summit in Lithuania in July.

“It goes without saying that we will be able to become members by Vilnius,” said Billstrom ahead of the vote by parliament.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said last week that the Turkish parliament is set to start the ratification of Finland’s NATO application. Hungary also said at the same time that it would also start ratifying Finland’s bid on March 27. Both countries have held off on Sweden’s application.

The United States last week also called on the two remaining countries to approve both Finland and Sweden’s NATO bids. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement calling on Ankara to also ratify Sweden’s bid following Erdogan’s announcement that he would approve of Finland’s.

“Sweden and Finland are both strong, capable partners that share NATO’s values and will strengthen the Alliance and contribute to European security. The United States believes that both countries should become members of NATO as soon as possible,” said Sullivan.