NATO chief to fly to Turkey for Sweden’s NATO bid
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – NATO Secretary-General revealed on Thursday his plan to travel to Turkey soon to discuss Sweden’s NATO bid with Turkey.
Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO Secretary-General, told reporters during a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Oslo, “I will also travel to Ankara in the near future to continue to address how we can ensure the fastest possible accession of Sweden.”
Stoltenberg stressed that he talked to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this week following his victory in the presidential election runoff on May 28.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom, for his part, told reporters that Sweden has fulfilled all its “commitments… It is time for Turkey and Hungary to start the ratification of Swedish membership to NATO.”
Billstrom added on Wednesday that a new anti-terror legislation has come into forces in Sweden that may push Turkey to drop its objection of Sweden’s NATO membership.
The law “will close a loophole in our already existing anti-terrorist legislation,” he claimed.
He expects that Sweden will become a NATO member before July.
Erdogan said on May 19 that his country is not ready to approve Sweden’s bid to join NATO, as long as the latter continues to harbor members of PKK.
Finland and Sweden formally applied to join NATO in May 2022, prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, but Turkey and Hungary did not immediately approve their bid.
Turkey justified holding out by claiming that the Scandinavian applicants supported the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
However, in March, Turkey ratified Finland’s bid while still holding out on Sweden.