NATO deems Swedish membership “absolutely possible” by July

“My message is that it is within our reach.” Swedish membership in NATO is “absolutely possible” between now and the Alliance summit in Vilnius in July, said the head of the Atlantic Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, on Tuesday 30 May.

“There are no guarantees, but it is absolutely possible to reach a solution to allow the decision on full membership” of Sweden from here to the summit, he declared during a press conference in Oslo (Norway), which this week is hosting an informal meeting of the heads of diplomacy of NATO countries. “We have no certainty. Of course, we are talking about sovereign decisions by national parliaments”he pointed out, but “of course it is possible”.

For the Secretary General of NATO, “there is now a window, especially after the Turkish elections and with the Turkish Parliament being constituted”. Turkey is, with Hungary, the only one of the 31 NATO countries not to have yet ratified Swedish membership. Finland formally became the 31st member of the Atlantic Alliance on April 4.

“Constant contacts with the Turkish authorities”

Re-elected on Sunday for five years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blocks this Swedish candidacy. He accuses Stockholm of harboring Turkish opposition figures and Kurdish activists from movements considered “terrorist” by Ankara. Jens Stoltenberg said he had “constant contacts with the Turkish authorities” to try to remove the last obstacles.