Sweden and Finland dropped decades of military non-alignment and sought the nuclear protection afforded by the US-led organisation in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year. Their bids won fast-track approval by all other Nato members except for Turkey and Hungary. The two ultimately relented and accepted Finland into the bloc this year. The step roughly doubled the length of Nato's border with Russia and strengthened the security of three tiny Baltic nations that joined the bloc after the Soviet Union's collapse.
But Turkey has vented fury at Sweden a liberal Nordic nation that opened its doors to migrants in past decades for refusing to crack down on Kurdish support groups that Ankara views as "terrorists". Hungary has been following Turkey's lead in the 18-month saga. Western allies worry that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is using his close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin to undermine Nato and sow divisions in Europe.
But Nato hopes that Turkey would finally ratify the bid when parliament returned from summer recess receded as war returned to the Middle East. 'Balancing act' Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas in retaliation for the militants' attacks of October 7th in which 1,200 people most of them civilians died and around 240 were taken hostage. The Hamas-run health ministry says the death toll from Israel's Gaza offensive has now topped 11,500 and includes thousands of children. Erdogan continues to voice occasional displeasure at Sweden for allowing Kurdish groups that Ankara has outlawed to march in Stockholm. But he has focused most of his anger at Israel and the West for the scale of the civilian toll of the Gaza war. Erdogan has called Israel
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