Turkey: Erdogan to discuss NATO bid with Sweden’s new leader
Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he has agreed to meet with Sweden’s new
prime minister in Ankara to discuss the Scandinavian country’s bid to join
NATO, describing the visit as an opportunity to test Stockholm’s “sincerity” in
meeting Turkey’s conditions.
In response
to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sweden abandoned a longstanding policy of
military nonalignment and applied for NATO membership this year together with
neighboring Finland. Turkey, already a member of the military alliance,
threatened to block the process.
Erdogan’s
government placed a series of demands on Stockholm, in particular to crack down
on Kurdish groups that Ankara accuses of terrorism and considers to be national
security threats.
Erdogan told
a group of reporters Thursday upon his return from a trip to Azerbaijan that
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson had made comments “in favor of the fight
against terrorism and terrorists.” The Turkish leader said he accepted
Kristersson’s request to visit the Turkish capital.
“Of course,
we will test their sincerity on this issue during this visit,” Erdogan said in
comments quoted by Turkish media on Friday.
NATO
operates by consensus, so Sweden and Finland need Turkey’s approval to join.
The parliaments of Turkey and Hungary have yet to ratify their accession.
“Our stance has not changed,” Erdogan said.
“There is no compromise in the fight against terrorism and we have no intention
of making any concessions.”
Meanwhile,
Sweden’s new foreign minister, Tobias Billstrom, said the government “attaches
the highest priority to our NATO accession.” He described a possible meeting
between Kristersson and Erdogan as positive news.
“We believe
that close dialogue and close consultations with all the three parties of this
trial memorandum is the way forward,” said Billstrom said, who met his Finnish
counterpart, Pekka Haavisto, in Helsinki on Friday.
Last month,
Sweden announced it would lift an arms embargo it imposed on Turkey in 2019
following a Turkish military operation against the Kurdish militia YPG in
Syria. The move was widely seen as a step aimed at securing Ankara’s approval
for Sweden’s NATO membership.
“We believe
that everything will lead to what we expect: namely, the ratification of and by
the Turkish parliament,” Billstrom said.
