{"id":39287,"date":"2024-01-25T12:10:36","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T06:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=39287"},"modified":"2025-04-24T08:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T02:34:07","slug":"nato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/nato\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey\u2019s parliament approves Sweden\u2019s NATO membership"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in news?<\/li>\n<li>What is North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)?<\/li>\n<li>News Summary: Turkey\u2019s parliament approves Sweden\u2019s NATO membership<\/li>\n<li>Why does Sweden want to join NATO?<\/li>\n<li>Why was Turkey opposing Sweden\u2019s bid?<\/li>\n<li>What will Sweden bring to NATO?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in news?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Sweden\u2019s attempt to join NATO cleared a major hurdle after Turkey\u2019s parliament supported its membership.<\/li>\n<li>For a new country to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), all the existing members have to approve it.<\/li>\n<li>Turkey and Hungary had been opposing Sweden\u2019s entry for almost the past two years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>About\n<ul>\n<li>Formed in 1949 with the signing of the Washington Treaty, NATO is a security alliance of 31 countries from North America and Europe.\n<ul>\n<li>In April 2023, <u>Finland joined the alliance as its 31<\/u><sup><u>st<\/u><\/sup><u> member<\/u>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>NATO\u2019s fundamental goal is to safeguard the Allies\u2019 freedom and security by political and military means.<\/li>\n<li>It is a <u>system of collective defence<\/u> where independent member states agree for mutual defence in case of any attack by external party.\n<ul>\n<li>Article 5 of the Washington Treaty states that an attack against one Ally is an attack against all. This article forms the core of the Alliance, a promise of collective defense.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Headquarter &#8211; Brussels, Belgium.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Functions\n<ul>\n<li>Political\n<ul>\n<li>NATO promotes democratic values and enables members to consult and cooperate on defence and security-related issues to solve problems, build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Military\n<ul>\n<li>NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes.<\/li>\n<li>If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis-management operations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>News Summary: Turkey\u2019s parliament approves Sweden\u2019s NATO membership<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>On January 23, Turkey&#8217;s parliament voted to approve Sweden&#8217;s membership bid to join NATO.<\/li>\n<li>The vote ended a 20-month delay that frustrated Turkey&#8217;s Western allies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why does Sweden want to join NATO?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Sweden has not fought a war in two centuries, staying neutral through the two World Wars and the Cold War.<\/li>\n<li>In recent years, while it joined the European Union and collaborated with NATO, it showed no intention of actually joining the military alliance.<\/li>\n<li>However, this neutrality had to be abandoned after Russia invaded Ukraine.\n<ul>\n<li>With public opinion increasingly in favour of joining NATO, both Sweden and Finland applied for membership in 2022.<\/li>\n<li>While Finland\u2019s bid was cleared, Sweden ran into stiff opposition from Turkey and Hungary.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why was Turkey opposing Sweden\u2019s bid?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Support to Kurdish militant outfit\n<ul>\n<li>Turkey had accused Sweden of going soft on groups it sees as terrorists, such as the Kurdish militant outfit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Quran-burning protests held in Sweden\n<ul>\n<li>The government says that it is protected under freedom of speech laws. This further soured its relationship with Turkey.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>US agreeing to sell 40 F-16 fighter jets to Ankara\n<ul>\n<li>Experts also linked Turkey\u2019s support to Sweden with the US agreeing to sell 40 F-16 fighter jets to Ankara(capital of Turkey)<\/li>\n<li>While the US had not said the deal would depend on Turkey\u2019s Sweden actions, the sale is expected to go through now.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What will Sweden bring to NATO?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Once Sweden becomes a member, almost all of the Baltic Sea coastline, except that in Russia\u2019s control, will become NATO territory.<\/li>\n<li>This will provide the alliance strategic bases close to Russia, make supply lines more streamlined, and make it easier to defend assets in the sea.<\/li>\n<li>Sweden\u2019s military, though numerically small, is modern and experienced in past NATO missions. Importantly, it has advanced aircraft and submarine capabilities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1)\u00a0What are F-16 fighter jets?\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p>The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine, single-seat jet fighter. It is a multi-role aircraft that can perform air-to-air combat and air-to-surface attacks. The F-16 is highly maneuverable and can reach speeds of over Mach 2. It has a maximum speed of 1,345 mph, a cruising speed of 577 mph, and a range of 1,407 miles.<\/p>\n<h3>Q2) What is the Kurdistan Workers&#8217; Party (PKK)?<\/h3>\n<p>The Kurdistan Workers&#8217; Party (PKK) is a Kurdish militant group that has been fighting for an independent Kurdistan since 1978. The PKK is also known as Kongra-Gel.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/everyday-explainers\/turkey-swedens-nato-why-it-changed-its-stance-9126127\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Turkey finally backs Sweden\u2019s NATO bid: Why the opposition, why it changed its stance<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nato.int\/cps\/en\/natohq\/216570.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>NATO<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2023\/7\/11\/why-turkey-changed-its-stance-on-swedens-nato-membership-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Aljazeera<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/international\/turkeys-parliament-approves-swedens-nato-membership-lifting-a-key-hurdle\/article67770406.ece#:~:text=Photo%20Credit%3A%20AP-,Turkish%20legislators%20on%20Tuesday%20endorsed%20Sweden&#039;s%20membership%20in%20NATO%2C%20lifting,to%2055%2C%20with%20four%20abstentions.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>The Hindu<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FCRA regulates foreign donations, safeguarding internal security from adverse impacts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":39288,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-39287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}