Erdogan and Orban, Let Sweden Into NATO Already
Sweden has done almost too much to get into the Western alliance. Now Turkey and Hungary must allow it.
Erdogan and Orban, peas in a pod.
Photographer: Laszlo Balogh/Getty Images
Will they or won’t they? Since Sweden applied to join NATO last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have been blocking its membership in the alliance. Now Sweden has gone above and beyond in accommodating Turkish demands. And Erdogan, having won his third term, no longer needs to act tough for his home audience. For the sake of Western unity, the two leaders must drop their vetoes and admit Sweden as the 32nd ally at the NATO summit in Vilnius next month.
Their parallel tracks of obstruction have certainly raised eyebrows. Both have been notably cordial with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose attack on Ukraine motivated Finland and Sweden to seek protection inside NATO in the first place. Erdogan even bought a Russian system of surface-to-air missiles, a head-scratcher for a NATO ally. Orban, whose country is also in the European Union, keeps resisting the bloc’s sanctions on Russia. This month, he was awarded the First Degree of Russia’s Order of Glory and Honor by Kirill, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, confidante of Putin and staunch supporter of the invasion of Ukraine.