Stoltenberg: Sweden will join NATO by July

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is confident Sweden will join the military alliance by July at the latest, he told German news agency DPA this week.

The next NATO summit will be held in Washington from July 9-11 and the Nordic country will be a fully-fledged member by then, he said.

Sweden and Finland abandoned decades of neutrality and both applied to become NATO allies in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While Helsinki’s bid was swiftly approved, Stockholm’s is being held up by both Turkey and Hungary.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants the Swedish government to act against Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) members on its soil and is leveraging his veto power to get F-16 fighter jets from the U.S.

In late December, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said there was no “great willingness” from Hungarian lawmakers to approve Sweden’s bid.

A few days later, the Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee gave its approval for Sweden to join the alliance after months of stalling. The chamber’s general assembly now needs to give its final green light.

Stockholm has honored its commitments to Ankara and made concessions, Stoltenberg said.