Turkey gives green light to Swedish NATO membership bid
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday agreed to forward to parliament Sweden’s bid to join the NATO military alliance, appearing to end months of drama over an issue that had strained the bloc as war has raged in Ukraine.
Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership last year, abandoning their policies of military non-alignment that had lasted through the decades of the Cold War in response to Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, Reuters reported.
While Finland’s NATO membership was green-lighted in April, Turkey and Hungary have yet to clear Sweden’s bid. Stockholm has been working to join the bloc at the alliance’s summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, which begins on Tuesday.
“I’m glad to announce ... that President Erdogan has agreed to forward the accession protocol for Sweden to the grand national assembly as soon as possible, and work closely with the assembly to ensure ratification,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference, describing it as a “historic” step. He had convened Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson for several hours of talks on the eve of the summit as he sought to finally break the deadlock.
Erdogan has held out for months, saying Sweden’s accession hinged on the implementation of a deal reached last year during the alliance’s summit in Madrid and that no one should expect compromises from Ankara.
Turkey has accused Sweden of not doing enough against people Turkey sees as terrorists, mainly members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the EU and the United States.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reacted to the Turkey’s decision, saying that Turkey should be under no illusion that it might one day be allowed to join the European Union.