What to Make of Turkey's Move to Unblock Sweden's NATO Bid

Turkey's eleventh-hour decision to back Sweden's accession to NATO reflects Ankara's balancing act between the East and the West, and was driven by Turkey's desire for Western economic and defense aid. After a year of delaying Sweden's accession to NATO, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on the eve of the July 11-12 NATO summit in Lithuania that he would back Stockholm joining the alliance. Then on July 12, Erdogan announced that the Turkish Parliament would not vote on the issue before the end of the summer recess in October, which suggests that there may still be some last-minute negotiations between Ankara and its Western partners....