Sweden to present NATO accession bill to parliament in March

The Swedish government is set to present its NATO accession legislation to its parliament in the coming month. The move comes as Turkey and Hungary have yet to approve the bid.

On Wednesday, Swedish foreign minister Tobias Billstrom said in his speech on the government’s foreign policy priorities of the year that the legislation for accession to the NATO alliance would be introduced to parliament in March. The timing of Sweden’s membership, however, still depends on whether or not holdout countries Turkey and Hungary approve.

Sweden and Finland filed a joint application to the NATO alliance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year. However, the process of accepting the Nordic countries ran into opposition from Turkey. Ankara has demanded that Sweden present a tougher stance against the Kurdistan Worker’s Party which the Turkish government and the European Union considers a terrorist group, along with another group Turkey accuses of a coup attempt in 2016.

The Hungarian parliament is set to debate ratification later this month and is expected to back Finland and Sweden’s bids to become NATO members. Turkey, however, has said so far that it was willing to approve of Finland’s membership.

Relations between Sweden and Turkey over Stockholm’s NATO bid have come under strain in recent weeks due to the protests in Stockholm against Sweden’s accession to NATO, with a far-right politician burning a copy of the Koran. Progress on Sweden’s membership is unlikely going to happen ahead of the general elections in Turkey that will take place in May, as well as the recent earthquake that hit the country and Syria this month.

On Tuesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said it was important that Finland and Sweden’s accession bids were ratified more quickly than together. Western countries under the alliance have said that they prefer the two Nordic countries join at the same time citing the ease of integration into military structures should the accession be simultaneous.

“The main question is not whether Finland and Sweden are ratified together. The main question is that they are both ratified as full members as soon as possible,” the NATO chief told reporters.