Turkey had been blocking the ratification of Sweden’s entry into NATO by the Turkish Parliament for more than a year. Finally, and in an unexpected twist,Ankara has given the green light this Monday to the entry of the Scandinavian country into the alliancewhich will become member number 32. It has done so on the eve of the Atlantic Alliance summit to be held this Tuesday and Wednesday in Vilnius (Lithuania).

However, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, he has not given his arm to twist for free. Among the concessions to lift the veto are the extraditions of Kurds and the shipment of arms to Ankara, and now a highly desired request by the Ottoman country has been added: to enter the European Union. “Open the way for Turkey to the European Union,” Erdogan asked on Monday.

A process of European integration that has been paralyzed for years, after Erdogan’s authoritarian drift, but which he now uses as a bargaining chip. In addition, it has achieved a commitment from Sweden to support the modernization of customs unions and also the liberalization of visas.

However, the path of the Swedes towards NATO still has the obstacle of Hungary, although they assured that they would not be the last to open the door for them. A door that, for the moment, remains closed, or at least not wide open for Ukraine, which will not leave Vilnius with a commitment to accession.

The Ukrainian situation

The latest military organization to eliminate in the Lithuanian capital some of the bureaucratic steps that will accompany the future invitation, such as the so-called Membership Action Planwhich establishes the requirements to enter.

Meanwhile, the president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, on his way to attend the NATO summit, has shown his anger and has considered that it is “absurd” that the Alliance will not give an invitation date for your country to join. In addition, he has assured that he has “signs” that there will be a declaration without direct reference to membership once the war ends.

“The formula only refers to the invitation, and not to Ukraine’s accession,” Zelenski said about the content of the declaration that the allies would be negotiating. The president has described as “absurd and unprecedented” that the declaration that is being debated does not include a date to invite Ukraine to join the Alliance.