Sweden approves Nato entry as Turkiye, Hungary ratifications drag

STOCKHOLM: Sweden´s parliament voted on Wednesday in favour of joining Nato despite delays by Hungary and Turkiye to ratify its membership bid, which will likely lead to Sweden joining after neighbouring Finland.

The vote, which paved the way for the country´s Nato accession and provides the necessary legal framework, passed with 269 votes in favour and 37 against, with 43 MPs not attending in Sweden´s 349 seat parliament.

“Nato membership is the best way to safeguard Sweden´s security and to contribute in solidarity to the security of the entire Euro-Atlantic area,” Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told parliament during the debate that preceded the vote.

Sweden and Finland dropped their decades-long policies of military non-alignment and applied to join the trans-Atlantic defence pact last May, in the wake of Moscow´s invasion of Ukraine.