Disappointment grew among NATO foreign ministers on Tuesday over Turkey’s blocking of Sweden’s entry into the North Atlantic Alliance meeting, which was supposed to mark Sweden’s official entry, DPA reported, quoted by Agerpres.

Consensus at the NATO summit: Erdogan refuses to join Sweden and Finland Photo: Bernat Armangue / AP – The Associated Press / Profimedia Images

“We hoped for full membership of Sweden in NATO before this meeting. This did not happen,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg after arriving at the two-day meeting in Brussels.

Sweden, along with Finland, decided to apply for NATO membership after a long period of military non-alignment in response to Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In October, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his willingness to end opposition to accepting Sweden as an ally, but the parliament in Ankara has yet to ratify Stockholm’s membership. Although Helsinki officially joined the military alliance in April, Stockholm is still waiting to become an official member despite meeting Ankara’s demands, Stoltenberg noted.