Why Erdogan is still blocking Sweden's NATO bid

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Why Erdogan of Turkey is still blocking Sweden's NATO bid

Turkey's president says NATO should NOT bet on him approving Swedish membership of the military alliance before July's summit. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country's attitude to Sweden's accession was "not positive," as Sweden hadn't yet fully addressed his security concerns. Turkey accuses Sweden of being too lenient toward militant Kurdish groups. His comments come as officials from NATO, Sweden, Finland and Ankara meet in Ankara to address Turkey's concerns. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says some progress has been made. 

At the present time, NATO has 31 member countries. These countries, called NATO Allies, are sovereign states that come together through NATO to discuss political and security issues and make collective decisions by consensus.

NATO was created by 12 countries from Europe and North America on 4 April 1949.

Since then, 19 more countries have joined NATO through nine rounds of enlargement (in 1952, 1955, 1982, 1999, 2004, 2009, 2017, 2020 and 2023).

Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty sets out how countries can join the Alliance. It states that membership is open to any "European State in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area".

Any decision to invite a country to join the Alliance is taken by the North Atlantic Council, NATO's principal political decision-making body, on the basis of consensus among all Allies.

Alphabetical list of NATO member countries:

Albania 2009

Belgium 1949

Bulgaria 2004

Canada 1949

Croatia 2009

Czechia 1999

Denmark 1949

Estonia 2004

Finland 2023

France 1949

Germany 1955

Greece 1952

Hungary 1999

Iceland 1949

Italy 1949

Latvia 2004

Lithuania 2004

Luxembourg 1949

Montenegro 2017

Netherlands 1949

North Macedonia 2020

Norway 1949

Poland 1999

Portugal 1949

Romania 2004

Slovakia 2004

Slovenia 2004

Spain 1982

Türkiye 1952

United Kingdom 1949

United States of North America 1949