Turkey takes the first step to approve Sweden's entry into NATO

This Tuesday, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Turkish Parliament gave its approval to Sweden's entry into NATO, a step prior to the vote in plenary session, scheduled for January 16, necessary to ratify accession.

The proposal to admit Sweden into NATO was presented by the AKP, the party that has governed Turkey since 2002, and received the votes in favor of its coalition partner, the ultranationalist MHP, and the social democratic CHP, the largest opposition party. .

AKP and MHP together maintain the absolute majority in Parliament, so the approval of Sweden's entry is taken for granted, once the country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, gives the relevant order to his deputies.

The nationalist IYI party, split from the MHP and part of the opposition bloc, voted against this Tuesday, according to the Turkish network NTV.. The DEM, the progressive and pro-kudo party, was absent from the vote.

The Commission is made up of 27 deputies from various parties, who must examine whether the motions submitted to Parliament comply with the law, before sending them to the Plenary.

The motion is expected to go to the general vote on January 16, according to the aforementioned network.

Turkey and Hungary are the last two countries that have not yet approved the admission of the Nordic country.

In recent weeks, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has linked that approval to the agreement with the United States to sell F-16 fighter-bombers to Turkey, a transaction planned for years, but blocked by the US Congress.

“This is all related. “If the positive progress that we expect from both the United States on the F-16 issue and from Canada on its promises occurs, I believe that our Parliament will also accelerate its positive opinion,” Erdogan said a week ago, after speaking by phone with his American counterpart, Joe Biden.