Despite growing international pressure on Ankara to support Sweden’s bid to join NATO, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted that he would reject the entry during the alliance’s meeting next July.
The Turkish president has signaled that his country will not necessarily live up to the expectations of NATO candidate Sweden at the upcoming annual NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital.
According to Turkish media, this happened today at a meeting of high-ranking officials of NATO, Sweden, Finland and Turkey in Ankara.
accession of Finland
Sweden and Finland applied for membership together after Russia’s military operation in Ukraine last year. Finland became the 31st member of NATO in April after the Turkish parliament approved its request.
But Ankara has delayed approving a proposal by Sweden, which Turkey accuses of being too lenient on terrorist organizations it says pose a security risk to it, including Kurdish groups and people linked to the 2016 coup attempt.
Today’s meeting of officials is scheduled to discuss the steps taken by Finland and Sweden under the memorandum they signed with Turkey last year to address Ankara’s security concerns. Haber Turk TV channel reported that the meeting took place at the Turkish presidential palace.
Notably, NATO wants to include Sweden by the date of the meeting of NATO leaders at the Lithuanian summit on 11 and 12 July.
Sweden amended the constitution
Sweden amended its constitution and tightened its anti-terrorism laws after applying to join the alliance in May 2022.
Also this week, the Swedish government agreed to extradite a Turkish citizen who was convicted of drugs in Turkey in 2013.
It was not immediately clear whether the man who was in Sweden and whose identity was not revealed was among the people whom Turkey wanted to extradite.
Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO after the Russian operation, giving up decades of non-alignment.
However, joining NATO requires the unanimous approval of all members, and Turkey and Hungary are the only two countries that have not yet ratified Sweden’s request.
