Diplomatic contacts have intensified since Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won the presidential election. The former leader of the Christian Democrats, Alf Svensson, recently made headlines when he claimed in a statement that Hungary's President Viktor Orbán promised him to approve Sweden once Turkey did the same. On June 1, the new anti-terrorism law came into effect, which now makes it illegal to participate in and finance participation in terrorist organisations. Sweden's handling of the terrorist threat has been one of Turkey's recurring points for approving the Swedish application.
NATO's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is visiting the US capital, Washington DC. There, on June 13, he had a meeting with, among others, President Joe Biden and held a subsequent press conference. During the press conference, both the President and the Secretary General emphasised that they look forward to Sweden becoming a member of the alliance as soon as possible.
On the same day, Stoltenberg also met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for discussions ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. During the subsequent press conference, Secretary of State Blinken mentioned, among other things, that he looks forward to presenting new support packages to Ukraine and that it is now time to welcome Sweden to the alliance. Stoltenberg, in turn, reiterated the Secretary of State's message.
On the same day, Stoltenberg also met with the Republican Party leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, and other Republican senators. After the meeting, Senator McConnell tweeted that he hopes and expects Sweden to become a NATO member by the Vilnius summit:
- The Senate hopes and expects to see Sweden become a NATO ally by the Vilnius summit next month. I believe Sweden’s leaders understand and respect Turkey’s national security interests. And I know it is in NATO’s interests to welcome this modern, high-tech economy into the Alliance.However, McConnell was not the only Republican senator making headlines yesterday regarding Sweden's NATO application. According to the Washington Post, Senator James E. Risch, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, has frozen the sale of, among other things, the HIMARS rocket artillery system to Hungary. The total value of the defence materiel is 735 million dollars and includes, in addition to the 24 artillery systems, ammunition and other associated equipment. In a statement to the newspaper, Senator Risch says that if Hungary wants its HIMARS, they must first approve Sweden as a NATO member. He continues that he has long expressed his concerns to the Hungarian government regarding their refusal to vote on approving Sweden:
- For some time now, I have directly expressed my concerns to the Hungarian government regarding its refusal to move forward a vote for Sweden to join NATO. The fact that it is now June and still not done. I decided that the sale of new U.S. military equipment to Hungary will be on hold.In an interview with Dagens Nyheter on June 14, the US NATO Ambassador Julianne Smith suggests that Turkey's purchase of F-16 fighter jets is contingent on Sweden's NATO accession:
- The Biden administration indeed supports Turkey's efforts to modernise its military, including the F-16 planes. But our friends in Congress have raised their concerns about the ratification of Sweden's application.
Smith adds that members of Congress, separate from the Biden administration, have indicated that they are very interested in seeing Sweden become a member.
- So we in the US will continue to encourage both Turkey and Hungary to ratify all necessary documents to ensure that Sweden can become a full-fledged member of the alliance. And then we will proceed from there regarding the next steps. Our focus now is to get Sweden over the finish line, she says...