Turkey’s government accuses Sweden of being too lenient toward groups that Ankara says pose a security threat, including militant Kurdish groups and people associated with a 2016 coup attempt.
A series of separate demonstrations in Stockholm, including a protest by an anti-Islam activist who burned the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy, also angered Turkish officials.
NATO requires the unanimous approval of all existing members to expand, and Turkey and Hungary are the only countries that have not yet ratified Sweden’s request to join.
This might be unpopular, but I don’t think it matters. I imagine Sweden is very cooperative with NATO anyways, like Finland was integrated even before its accession. Finland is much more important, it lets NATO patrol Russian borders with more legitimacy.
Also, it’s not like NATO’s function is anything more than a protection against Russia, and maybe to a very much lesser degree countries like Serbia. I don’t expect NATO to be unified against China for example, as long as China stays peaceful.
And it’s not like Russia will make any more invasions any time soon.
True, Russia is currently the 2nd strongest army in Ukraine, if not the 2nd strongest army in Russia. They lack the manpower and resources to extend their aggression deeper into Eastern Europe, so I don’t think NATO will need to mobilize to prevent an incursion into a country like Estonia or Latvia. But in that unlikely scenario we’d have Sweden’s backing, NATO member or not.