By Athena Papakosta

An emergency meeting of senior officials from Turkey, Sweden and Finland on July 6 has been announced by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to overcome Turkish objections to Sweden’s admission to the Alliance.

“Now is the time to welcome Sweden as a full member of NATO,” Jens Stoltenberg told reporters Wednesday as he announced the date of the meeting. It is expected to be attended by foreign ministers, intelligence chiefs and security advisers from Turkey, Sweden and Finland, which joined NATO last April.

For the admission of Sweden to the North Atlantic Alliance, the unanimous approval of all its members is required. However, Ankara insists on accusing Stockholm of being too lenient towards groups that Turkey deems to pose a security threat. They include members of the PKK as well as other individuals linked to the coup attempt in the summer of 2016.

Sweden and Finland, fearing they will be Russia’s next target, decided to abandon their traditional neutrality and apply to join NATO last summer.

Meanwhile, Hungary also appears to be delaying its own approval process for Swedish membership. Lawmakers from the country’s opposition “Democratic Coalition” party write that Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the Fidesz party will not schedule a vote on Sweden’s membership at the final spring session of the Hungarian parliament next week. On the contrary, they note that they are postponing it until next fall.

Budapest has maintained a hostile attitude towards Stockholm for years. Her anger stems from Sweden’s criticism of the Hungarian Prime Minister regarding the erosion of law in the country. For his part, Orban denies the fact. However, unlike Turkey, Hungary does not have a list of demands but states that its grievances should receive the necessary answers in order to ratify Sweden’s request for NATO membership.

For their part, Swedish officials express their displeasure with Hungary’s stance, while at the same time saying they are confused, while analysts conclude that the country is likely to follow Turkey’s example on the matter.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström has recently been busy with a number of NATO officials in order to ensure that the effort made by the Swedish side remains at the top of the agenda, stressing that there is no “plan B” beyond joining in Vilnius, Lithuania on July 11 and 12.

Experts on the subject note, without being optimistic, that Turkey has had differences again in the past and had clashed with its allies on a number of issues but in the end, and after a bargain, it had backed down. At the moment, Europe and the United States are steadily calling on Ankara to proceed with ratification.