We know that the situation between Ukraine and Russia has prompted a lot of the countries around the world, especially in Europe, to take some actions that can protect their territory if such a situation arises with them as well. For example, Ukraine also wants to join the NATO in order to protect itself from Russia and that is why the Russian President ordered its military to take action on Ukraine. Also, Russia clearly opposes Ukraine joining the NATO and it has already warned of dire consequences and even a war if Ukraine joins NATO. As expected, the US supports Ukraine joining NATO and is already blaming Russia for putting pressure on other countries.
Now, we have a new country that is planning to join NATO very soon which is Sweden. Once again, the US President is quite supportive of Sweden joining NATO and says that he is waiting “anxiously” for the country to join NATO. However, the application from Sweden to join NATO is pending due to only one NATO member and that is Hungary. Hungary has not signed the application from Sweden because it is waiting for Turkey to sign off Sweden’s application. Talking about Turkey, Erdogan is blocking Sweden’s application because it claims that “Sweden has harbored Kurdish exiles and refugees affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which Turkey considers a terrorist group”. He explains that once they join NATO, they will get an asylum which poses a threat to Turkey.
US President claims that he had a phone call with Turkish President and said that “He still wants to work on something on the F-16s. I told him we wanted a deal with Sweden, so let’s get that done.” Turkish leaders demand “Sweden extradite or expel numerous people affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and others he deems enemies of the state”. While many have been sent out of the country, many still remain inside Sweden. Key members of the US Congress have said that “they would block an F-16 deal unless Mr. Erdogan makes way for Swedish membership” but it is possible President Biden could convince them for a deal.
