Two countries have yet to ratify the NATO accession of Sweden and Finland. Turkey is one of them - and it sets conditions. The new Swedish government wants to hold talks on this as soon as possible - and Erdogan has a sympathetic ear.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to talk about Sweden's and Finland's NATO accession during a visit to Sweden's new Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Turkey. "Sweden's new prime minister asked for an appointment. I said to our friends, 'Give him an appointment'," Turkish broadcaster NTV quoted Erdogan as saying. "We will discuss these issues with him in our country," Erdogan explained on a plane on the way back from Azerbaijan. The meeting will serve to "test" the Swedish head of state's "sincerity" in fighting terrorists, Erdogan said.
Kristersson said on Thursday he was "immediately" ready to travel to Ankara to urge Turkey to support Sweden's NATO bid. At a press conference with his Finnish counterpart Pekka Haavisto in Helsinki, Sweden's new foreign minister, Tobias Billström, commented on Erdogan's statements: "Of course, this news is very, very positive. We believe that close dialogue and close consultations with all three parties will make this trilateral memorandum are the right way." There is a lot of room for negotiation in the implementation of the agreement, said Billström. He expects that the process will ultimately lead to Turkish ratification.
After the Russian attack on Ukraine, Sweden and Finland broke with their decades-long tradition of military alliance neutrality and applied for NATO membership in May. However, Turkey has blocked the accession negotiations between the two Scandinavian countries.
Ankara accuses the countries of supporting supporters of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Gülen movement, which Erdogan blames for the failed coup against him in 2016. Turkey is also calling for the lifting of export restrictions on weapons. At the end of September, Sweden declared that it was also ready to supply arms to Turkey.
Sweden's prime minister went on to say that he wanted to show Erdogan that Sweden and Finland "will actually do what we promised." At the urging of Ankara, the two countries had agreed to extradite suspects from their countries to Turkey.
For Turkey, however, this has not yet gone far enough. The Turkish President stressed that Ankara's position has not changed. He called on Stockholm and Helsinki to extradite "these terrorists". So far, 28 out of 30 NATO members have approved the accession of Sweden and Finland. Only Hungary and Turkey have yet to give their consent.
