The Swedish Prime Minister admitted on Tuesday that the possibility of Finland joining NATO before Sweden had risen, especially due to Turkey's objection to Stockholm's membership.

"It's more likely that this will happen at different rates," Conservative Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a news conference.

"It is clear that over the past few weeks the Turkish side has expressed its willingness (to agree to accession) for Finland, but not for Sweden," he added.

Sweden and Finland, candidates for membership in the alliance a year ago, against the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, are still hoping to join its ranks before the next NATO summit in Vilnius in July.

But the way is largely open to Helsinki, while Turkey still opposes Stockholm joining, despite the resumption of talks last week in Brussels.

"Turkey still believes that we did not take the necessary steps, and it expressed that clearly at the meeting, while it did not express its dissatisfaction with Finland," said Swedish negotiator Oskar Stenstrom.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke for the first time in mid-February about the possibility of the two countries not joining together.

The leaders of the thirty member states of the alliance decided to invite Sweden and Finland to join its ranks during a summit held in Madrid in July 2022.

Thirty countries signed accession protocols and only 28 ratified them. Only Turkey and Hungary have not ratified yet.
And Ankara announced that it might ratify Finland's accession without Sweden.

Turkey blames Sweden in particular for harboring Kurdish activists, which it considers "terrorists", especially supporters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

And submitted a list of demands including the expulsion of dozens of residents of Sweden, most of them Kurds, suspected of being linked to separatist groups.

Negotiations were suspended for several weeks after the Swedish authorities allowed in January a demonstration in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, during which a Quran was burned.

The Hungarian parliament began discussing the two countries' accession to NATO at the beginning of March, after repeated delays.

The ruling Fidesz party bloc told AFP on Tuesday that the vote, which was scheduled to take place no later than March 20, will not take place next week.

It cited the "delay in negotiations with Brussels" to release billions of euros of frozen funds pending anti-corruption reforms.

The Swedish side fears that Hungary will use its request to join NATO as a bargaining chip in its battle with the European Union.

Hungarian nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, for his part, seeks rapprochement with Russia and Turkey.

On the Turkish side, Sweden hopes to open the way to NATO after the May 14 elections in Turkey.

The opposition presents one candidate in the face of the outgoing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been in power for 20 years.