Sweden will likely join the NATO alliance this autumn, Jakub Landovský, the Czech ambassador to NATO, has recently said.
Sweden’s bid to join NATO, a joint one with Finland before its neighbour was accepted into the club, has been on hold for over a year now, with Hungary and Turkey being the last two countries standing in the way of membership.
Despite Turkey initially blocking membership due to perceived shortfalls in counter-terrorism and concerns related to the burning of the Quran, Landovský remains optimistic that strategic importance and rational decision-making will champion Sweden’s cause.
And while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has linked the debate over Sweden’s NATO entry to Turkey’s EU membership aspirations, Landovský thinks that while Turkey knows it will not get EU membership, it will “try to maximise its position vis-à-vis the EU on issues of export licences, payments for maintaining stability on migration issues,” he said in a recent interview for Czech News Agency.
Commenting on Hungary’s continued blockade, Landovský is convinced the country is increasingly finding itself alone and isolated.
“This, of course, has a significantly negative price tag in the international diplomatic world. I hope that the common interest will prevail over the particular interest,” he noted.
“With Turkey, it’s always a kind of complex transaction with many moving parts, but in principle, it’s strictly rational. It’s more complicated with Hungary because we do not know properly why it behaves the way it does,” the Czech NATO ambassador added.
The Czech ambassador also touched on the broader implications of NATO membership, particularly regarding Ukraine. He stressed that for Ukraine and the Western world, NATO membership is the only viable path forward.
“Russia knows NATO, Russia respects power, NATO is the strongest alliance in the world, and Ukraine is free to decide its future,” he said, highlighting the collective efforts of several countries, including the Czech Republic, to support Ukraine’s ambitions to join NATO.
Delaying talks on Ukraine’s NATO membership can brew frustration and potential geopolitical risks, the Czech diplomat added.
According to him, nobody wants to be held responsible for having a highly armed potentially dissatisfied and problematic neighbour join the alliance.
(Aneta Zachová | EURACTIV.cz)
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