Turkey, Hungary leaders delay unity in NATO, EU
Objections center on Kurdish group, new energy system
BRUSSELS — Europe’s effort to stand up to Russia and Vladimir Putin, its president, is being slowed by two strongmen leaders insisting on the priority of their national interests and playing to domestic audiences.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey on Wednesday blocked a procedural vote on NATO moving ahead quickly with the membership applications of Sweden and Finland, handed in with much publicity Wednesday, a senior European diplomat said.
And Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary continues to block even a watered-down European Union effort to put an embargo on Russian oil, part of a sixth package of sanctions aimed at Moscow for its war against Ukraine.
While NATO and the EU have shown remarkable unity in their response to Putin’s war, the actions of the two authoritarian leaders show the strains building as the war drags on, peace talks appear to go nowhere, and Western sanctions are contributing to economic pain and high inflation at home, as well as in Russia.
On Wednesday, a meeting of NATO ambassadors could not reach consensus on a first vote to proceed with the requests for membership because Turkey said it first wanted NATO to address its security concerns.
In particular, Turkey wants Finland and especially Sweden to end what Erdogan has called support for “terrorist organizations” in their countries, primarily the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, as well as to lift export bans on certain arms sales to Turkey.
Addressing his lawmakers in Parliament on Wednesday, Erdogan criticized at length Western support for Kurdish groups that Turkey sees as a terrorist threat.
Turkey “asked for 30 terrorists,” he said. “They said: ‘We are not giving them,’ ” Erdogan told the Parliament. “You won’t hand over terrorists but you want to join NATO. We cannot say yes to a security organization that is devoid of security.”
The PKK is a Kurdish guerrilla group that has fought a decadeslong separatist insurgency in parts of Turkey. It was designated by the United States as a terrorist organization in 1997.
Erdogan remains angry over support from Washington and Stockholm for a PKK-affiliated militia in Syria, where the group was fighting the Islamic State. And Turkey has demanded the extradition of six alleged PKK members from Finland and 11 alleged PKK members from Sweden.
Erdogan has said these issues cause him to not have “favorable thoughts” about the membership of the Nordic countries. But he has not said that he would veto their applications.
National security is Orban’s argument too. Hungary is dependent on Russia for its energy, getting 85% of its natural gas and 65% of its oil supply from Russia, as well as using Russian technology for its nuclear power plants.
While Hungary has approved all previous sanction packages, including an embargo on Russian coal, Orban said an oil embargo would be the equivalent of an “atomic bomb” for the Hungarian economy.
But like Erdogan in NATO, Orban this time is the sole holdout, in his case, in the weekslong EU efforts
to finalize a gradual embargo on Russian oil, the headline measure in a sixth package of sanctions since the invasion of Ukraine.
Talks began in April. After consultation between EU officials and diplomats from the bloc’s 27 member states, a proposal was put on the table incorporating different positions in early May.
But Hungary seemed to be moving the goal posts. The first proposal gave extensions to Hungary and Slovakia to find alternative suppliers. While the other 25 EU members would
have until the end of the year, Hungary and Slovakia would have through 2023.
Then Hungary demanded, and secured, even more time. The latest version of the package would grant it until the end of 2024, but Orban has insisted that Hungary would need billions from the bloc to shield his nation’s economy. His foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, said that to use different oil and modernize Hungary’s energy system would cost $15.7 billion to $18.8 billion and take five years.
Diplomats said they expect Orban eventually to acquiesce to an oil embargo, having secured both a long extension and extra funding for Hungary, but that he could drag the talks out even longer, perhaps until the end of the month.
NATO officials expressed the same confidence about Erdogan — that he will eventually agree to back Sweden and Finland joining NATO in return for some concessions that will help him politically at home, with his economy in crisis and new elections only a year away.