Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed the decree yesterday finalizing Türkiye’s ratification of Sweden’s entry into NATO. The formal endorsement of Sweden’s membership by the parliament and Erdogan’s subsequent decree were published in the country’s official gazette, marking the conclusion of the ratification process within Türkiye, reported Hürriyet.
In response, President Joe Biden immediately called on Congress to approve the sale of 40 F-16s and 79 modernization kits to Türkiye. A U.S. official, speaking anonymously so as to discuss correspondence with Congress, told Defense News that Biden sent a letter to lawmakers welcoming “the Turkish parliament’s ratification of Sweden’s NATO accession protocols and informing them his administration intends to formally notify Congress of the sale of F-16s to Türkiye as soon as this process is complete.” The official stated: “The President urged Congress to proceed with the F-16 sale without delay.”
Türkiye’s ratification of Sweden’s NATO accession leaves Hungary as the only Alliance member still standing in the way. The problem in Budapest appears not so much to be Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, but the Parliament. Hungarian Parliament Speaker Laszlo Kover pointed out, in an interview reported by TASS, that while a parliamentary majority supports NATO expansion in principle, the delay in Budapest’s ratification of Sweden’s NATO accession protocol stemmed from lawmakers’ discontent with the unfriendly statements that Swedish politicians have made about the state of democracy in Hungary.
