Why Erdogan is still blocking Sweden's NATO bid

DW News on Youtube has the story.

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

Canada could approve Finland, Sweden NATO bids within days

CBC News on Youtube shows that Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, who is in Brussels with her EU counterparts, says Canada could give approval for Finland and Sweden to join NATO within days. 

NATO is the famous military alliance. Its Anthem is the "The NATO Hymn." The so-called "The NATO Hymn" is really the organizational anthem of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It is an instrumental piece, composed in 1989 by André Reichling, a Luxembourgian military officer and a member of its military band. It was used unofficially for really many years before being formally adopted in January 2018.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO; French: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states - 28 European states, the United States, and Canada. Established in the aftermath of World War II on the insistence of the Truman administration in the United States, the organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty, which was certainly signed on 4 April 1949.

NATO is really a system of collective security. Its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by third parties. The organization's motto is "animus in consulendo liber" (Latin for "A mind unfettered in deliberation").

Since its founding, the admission of new member states has increased the alliance from the original 12 countries to 30. Members agreed indeed that their aim is to reach or maintain the target defence spending of at least 2 per cent of their GDP by 2024.

News from 17 May 2022 - Finland and Sweden will submit their bids to join NATO together on Wednesday at the military alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has said.

"I’m happy we have taken the same path and we can do it together," Andersson said on Tuesday during a joint news conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.

Niinisto said that a quick ratification of their applications for NATO membership by the United States would help the whole process go faster.

Niinisto and Andersson are due to meet President Biden in Washington on Thursday to discuss the applications.

Countries of Sweden and Finland, which sought membership in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, need each of NATO’s 30 members to approve their applications. The ratification process had been expected to take up to a year, though Turkey’s objections have thrown that into doubt, indeed.

Sweden coronavirus death toll is 3,460

Sweden’s response to the pandemic is kind of different from its European neighbours. Instead of a strict lockdown Swedes are advised to follow social distancing behaviour but without mandatory closures. Public places, bars and cafés have all remained open. This approach has many critics.

Sweden's coronavirus death toll has reached 3,460. Sweden has previously strongly urged people to "think twice" before travelling within the country because of the pandemic.

However, on Wednesday, the Swedish government and Public Health Agency presented new guidelines for domestic travel, which allow for short journeys under certain conditions.

These are the rules:
- the journey should not be longer than 1 to 2 hours by car from your home
- avoid as much as possible direct social contact with elderly people and other groups at risk
- guidelines are not saying that short journeys to visit elderly relatives are now ok
- recommendations are not to take part in large social gatherings
- your ways of travel and accommodation should have as little direct social contact as possible

The following information is from the COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University:

https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

Total Confirmed Global Cases: 4,330,982

Total Global Deaths: 295,671

Countries with most deaths from Coronavirus Covid-19:

83,715 USA
33,263 United Kingdom
31,106 Italy
27,077 France
26,920 Spain
12,703 Brazil
08,843 Belgium
07,859 Germany
06,783 Iran
05,581 Netherlands
05,410 Canada
04,637 China
03,952 Turkey
03,926 Mexico
03,460 Sweden

Countries with most confirmed cases of Coronavirus Covid-19:

1,388,002 USA
242,271 Russia
230,985 United Kingdom
228,030 Spain
222,104 Italy
181,518 Brazil
178,184 France
174,098 Germany
143,114 Turkey
112,725 Iran

Sweden's economic model begins to crumble

This video from Youtube is pretty interesting. It is The Duran Quick Take: Episode 328. The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the economy of Sweden. The economy has recently taken a steep downturn and faces recession.

The Duran - http://theduran.com

Sweden is a Scandinavian nation with thousands of coastal islands and inland lakes. The country has vast boreal forests and glaciated mountains. Its principal cities, eastern capital Stockholm and southwestern Gothenburg and Malmö, are all coastal. Stockholm is built on 14 islands. It has more than 50 bridges, as well as the medieval old town, Gamla Stan, royal palaces and museums such as open-air Skansen.

North of Sweden's border is Finland.
South of Sweden's border is Norway.
Iceland is the island east of Sweden.

Swedish is the official language of Sweden. Nearly the entire population of Sweden speak Swedish with most speaking it as a first language and the rest as a second language. The Swedish language is a North Germanic language that closely resembles Norwegian and Danish.

Over 80 percent of people in Sweden can speak English.

Swedish Grammar

Swedish Grammar is pretty interesting. Swedish is descended from Old Norse. Compared to its progenitor, Swedish grammar is much less characterized by inflection.

Modern Swedish has 2 genders and no longer conjugates verbs based on person or number. Its nouns have lost the morphological distinction between nominative and accusative cases that denoted grammatical subject and object in Old Norse in favor of marking by word order. Swedish uses some inflection with nouns, adjectives, and verbs.

Above: Swedish Alphabet

Here are some interesting translated phrases:

Sweden fears it may have created a negative-rates monster.
Sverige är rädda för att det kan ha skapat ett monster med negativa räntor.

In Sweden's Arctic, ice atop snow leaves reindeer starving.
I Sveriges Arktis löper isen på toppen av snöarna som svälter.

Hockey night in Sweden
Hockeykväll i Sverige

Cabinet approves India-Sweden pact on seafarer.
Skåpet godkänner Indien-Sverige-pakten om sjöfolk.

Bank and ATM closures: what the UK can learn from Sweden
Bank- och ATM-nedläggningar: vad Storbritannien kan lära sig av Sverige

Sweden Economy will continue to slow down next year

The economy of Sweden is a developed export-oriented economy. It is aided by timber, hydropower, and iron ore. These are the important resources of an economy oriented toward foreign trade. Time zone in Sweden is Central European Standard Time. Stockholm is the capital and largest city of Sweden. Stockholm is located at the junction of Lake Mälar (Mälaren) and Salt Bay (Saltsjön), an arm of the Baltic Sea, opposite the Gulf of Finland. The city is built upon various numerous islands as well as the mainland of Uppland and Södermanland. These are the biggest cities in Sweden: Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Uppsala and Västerås. The population of Sweden is about 10 million people.

The government of Sweden is interesting. The Prime Minister is appointed by the Riksdag. The ministers (statsråd) are appointed by the Prime Minister. The Government of the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Konungariket Sveriges regering) is the national cabinet and the supreme executive authority of Sweden.

Sweden and Switzerland sound similar, but they are different. Sweden is 450k square kilometres in size, while Switzerland is only 41k. Sweden has a long coastline along the Baltic Sea and the Kattegat. Switzerland is landlocked. Both countries have mountains, but the Swiss Alps are newer and higher than the Scandinavian Mountains in Sweden. The Swiss Alps make up more of the country.

Swedish is the official language of Sweden. Almost the entire population of Sweden speak Swedish with most speaking it as a first language and the rest as a second language. The Swedish language is a North Germanic language that closely resembles Norwegian and Danish.

The Swedish Krona is the official currency of Sweden. Swedish cuisine is mostly cultured dairy products, crisp and soft (often sugared) breads, berries and stone fruits, beef, chicken, lamb, pork, eggs, and seafood. Potatoes are often served as a side dish, often boiled.

Sweden’s economy will continue to slow down next year. The inflation will slip further. The economy remains vulnerable to possible negative outcomes from the trade conflict between USA and China, Brexit and other global issues. After several years of operating well, the Swedish economy has entered a slowdown phase. Many analysts say the phase is normal.

Inflation is below target. It will drop further in the next few years. Inflation is expected to be about 1.6% next year.

Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank, has ended its 5-year experiment with negative interest rates. Negative interest rates might have been a bad economic idea.