Stoltenberg conveys
Erdogan paves the way for Sweden to join NATO
7/10/2023 9:34 p.m
On the eve of the NATO summit, Turkish President Erdogan lifted his blockade on Sweden joining NATO. This was announced by NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg. On Twitter he speaks of a “historic step”. Hungary has also recently signaled approval.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paves the way for Sweden to join NATO. “Sweden will become a full member of the alliance,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the evening after mediation talks with Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. Erdogan pledged to ensure ratification of Sweden’s accession act by his country’s parliament, according to a statement. However, Stoltenberg dodged the question of when Sweden’s entry into NATO could be complete. He only reiterated that there was a clear commitment to forward the ratification documents to Parliament.
In return, Sweden signed a “security pact” with Turkey and promised a “continued fight against terrorism”. Erdogan had accused the government in Stockholm of not doing enough against extremists from the Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK. Stoltenberg also wants to use a special representative for the fight against terrorism in the military alliance for the first time.
New requirement before departure
Erdogan surprisingly made a new demand before leaving for Vilnius. He made the resumption of EU accession talks with Turkey a condition of his approval of Sweden’s NATO membership. “First open the way for Turkey’s accession to the European Union, and then we open the way for Sweden,” Erdogan said.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the EU Commission reacted cautiously to the demand and pointed out that the two issues are not related. At the end of 2016, the EU put the accession negotiations with Turkey, which had started in 2005, on hold. The background was the mass arrests of Turkish government critics after the failed military coup against President Erdogan in July 2016.
Hungary signals approval with green light from Ankara
Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership in May 2022 under the impression of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. At the beginning of April, Finland became the 31st member of the alliance. Sweden has so far lacked the consent of Turkey and Hungary, which was primarily due to Turkey’s blockade attitude. Hungary recently reaffirmed that it would not stand in the way of Sweden’s admission should Turkey give the green light. The Turkish leadership has been blocking Sweden’s accession for over a year.
The heads of state and government of the 31 NATO countries meet in Vilnius on Tuesday for their summit. The main focus is on stronger support for Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is invited to the two-day meeting.
For a long time, the goal in Stockholm was to resolve the Turkish blockade by the Vilnius summit. It is still unclear when exactly Erdogan’s positive signal will come. The next session of Turkey’s parliament is scheduled for Tuesday, which means it could, at least in theory, give its approval while the two-day summit in Vilnius is underway. If the Hungarian parliament then ratifies quickly, then Sweden could soon officially become the 32nd member of NATO.