Türkiye says no rush to finalize Sweden’s bid to join NATO

Türkiye is in no rush to approve Sweden’s accession to NATO and may not discuss a protocol on it until the start of 2024, said Fuat Oktay, the head of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Report informs referring to Bloomberg.

“Of course we’re not in a rush, we have our own priorities,” he told Bloomberg in an interview.

He said the US should stop making the issue a prerequisite for the sale of F-16 warplanes to Ankara and suggested the two processes could move forward in tandem.

“There are issues that some NATO members associate with the Sweden issue, for example, the F-16 issue,” Oktay said in parliament. “If that’s the case then let’s have them run simultaneously.”

The protocol on Sweden's accession to NATO has so far been ratified by 31 countries of the alliance; only Hungary and Türkiye have not approved it.