Sweden has announced that it will permit NATO troops on its land, even before it formally joins the alliance, sending a signal to Russia and strengthening its defense. Although Sweden applied to join NATO last year due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, objections from countries like Turkey and Hungary have hindered its bid. However, Sweden is hopeful of joining the alliance before a NATO summit in Lithuania next month. There is reportedly greater optimism now that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has been re-elected for another five-year term and will support Sweden’s membership. Furthermore, Sweden has amended its Constitution and its antiterrorism laws, as well as lifting an embargo on arms sales to Turkey. The Swedish high court this week also ruled that the government can extradite a Kurd from Sweden who is a supporter of the P.K.K., a group which the US and EU consider a terrorist organization, but Turkey disputes.
If Sweden were to join NATO, it is expected that Hungary would follow suit. As negotiations among NATO allies intensify ahead of the Vilnius summit meeting, there is growing consensus that Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, could succeed Jens Stoltenberg, the alliance’s current secretary general, who recently met with representatives of Turkey, Sweden, and Finland. Frederiksen recently met President Biden and other US officials during her trip to Washington and has promised to increase Denmark’s military spending to reach NATO’s target of 2% of its economic output. There is reportedly a view that candidates from Central Europe and the Baltics, who are associated with an aggressive stance on Russia and rapid Ukrainian membership of the alliance, are too closely linked to achieve consensus, while France and others are insisting that a new secretary general come from an EU country, ruling out Britain’s defense secretary, Ben Wallace, who has expressed an interest in the job.
