Sweden's parliament votes to join NATO

Mar 25, 2023 - 19:57
Sweden's parliament votes to join NATO

A year after the Stockholm government applied to join NATO, the Swedish parliament officially voted to join this military alliance. A clear majority of MPs voted in favor of it after a debate in Stockholm on Wednesday. Of the MPs present, 269 voted in favor of accession, 37 against and 43 abstained.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström tweeted after the vote: "A historic decision has been made following the positive vote by the Swedish parliament for the country's membership in NATO." Sweden is becoming increasingly secure and we will be one of the security providers for the NATO alliance.
Before the start of the voting session, Billstrom said in a speech in parliament: We will be able to join NATO before the NATO meeting in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, scheduled for July this year. However, Sweden can only become a NATO member once all 30 member states have ratified accession. 28 countries have already done so. Hungary and Turkey are still missing.
Turkey still has reservations about Sweden joining NATO. Turkey first expects concrete steps from Sweden to fulfill counter-terrorism commitments made by the Nordic country and its neighbor Finland under a NATO-joining agreement, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.