Sweden warns that “time is running out” for NATO membership before July

COPENHAGEN, 16 May. (DPA/EP) –

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson warned on Tuesday that “time is clearly running out” for the interests of Stockholm, which seeks NATO membership before the Alliance leaders’ summit next month. July in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.

The Swedish accession process to NATO is still blocked by Turkey and Hungary, the only countries in the bloc that have not yet given their approval, alleging different reasons. While Ankara reproaches the Swedish collusion with alleged Kurdish terrorists, Budapest tries to prevent certain policies from being approved in the European Union.

“Right now, we should not expect anything to happen with this process. Right now Turkey is busy with internal politics,” Kristersson acknowledged, referring to the presidential elections held on Sunday and after which the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the opponent Kemal Kiliçdaroglu will have to face each other in the second round.

Sweden presented its candidacy to join the Atlantic Alliance together with Finland. However, after the veto of Turkey and Hungary, Helsinki decided to advance alone without the company of its neighboring country and main ally, and it obtained the final endorsement at the beginning of April.

After this, Sweden set the leaders’ summit in July as the main deadline to achieve entry into the Atlantic Alliance, however the recent tensions between Ankara and Stockholm after the burning of copies of the Koran in the European country, and the current elections Turkish, appear to make it difficult to meet deadlines.