Sweden inched a step closer to joining NATO on Monday after Turkey’s president sent accession protocols to parliament.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted both Sweden and Finland to seek NATO membership but the former’s entry had been stymied by Turkey.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s sign off on the accession protocols comes after months of delays but it is unclear how long the process will take.
Erdogan’s proposal must make its way out of a parliamentary commission and then be opened up for a general vote on the main floor of the assembly where the Turkish president and his allies have the majority needed to ratify Sweden’s bid.
Finland, which applied for membership in May 2022 along with Sweden, joined NATO in April 2023.
Erdogan accused Sweden of being too lenient on militant groups, most notably the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and harboring people associated with a 2016 Turkish coup attempt.
Turkish officials have also accused Swedish officials of being complicit in Islamophobic demonstrations, such as the burning of the Quran.
Since applying for membership, Sweden has tightened its anti-terror legislation and agreed to work more closely with Turkey on its security concerns.
In July, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg announced that Erdogan had agreed to send the accession protocols to Turkey’s parliament for ratification, but did not specify a time frame. The announcement represented a stunning about-face for Erdogan, who had previously suggested Sweden could only join the alliance after Turkey was accepted into the European Union.
The United States welcomed the news that Erdogan had signed and sent Sweden’s NATO accession protocols to the Turkish parliament on Monday.
“Obviously we have been calling for ratification of Sweden accession for some time,” State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said.
India’s economy will become carbon neutral by the year 2070, the country’s prime minster has announced at the COP26 climate crisis summit in Glasgow. The target date is two decades beyond what scientists say is needed to avert catastrophic climate impacts. India is the last of the world’s major carbon polluters to announce a net-zero target, with China saying it would reach that goal in 2060, and the United States and the European Union aiming for 2050.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
A crucial U.N. conference heard calls on its first day for the world's major economies to keep their promises of financial help to address the climate crisis, while big polluters India and Brazil made new commitments to cut emissions. World leaders, environmental experts and activists all pleaded for decisive action to halt the global warming which threatens the future of the planet at the start of the two-week COP26 summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow on Monday. The task facing negotiators was made even more daunting by the failure of the Group of 20 major industrial nations to agree ambitious new commitments at the weekend.