Erdogan will support Sweden’s entry into NATO if the EU reopens talks with Turkey

2023-07-10 14:47:10

Recep Tayyip Erdogan lays down his conditions. On Monday, the Turkish president announced that he will support Sweden’s entry into NATO provided that the European Union reopens discussions with Turkey, on the eve of a crucial summit of the Atlantic Alliance. As for the question of Ukraine joining NATO, the Alliance announced that it was going to remove a major obstacle: the MAP (“Membership action plan”), a sort of antechamber to the candidacy for NATO. Alliance which sets a number of reform objectives.

The allies “are ready” to drop the membership action plan requirement for Ukraine’s candidacy, a Western official told AFP on condition of anonymity. This action plan “is only one of the stages in the process of joining NATO. Even if it is abolished, Ukraine will still have to carry out other reforms before joining NATO,” he said.

“First pave the way for Turkey’s EU membership”

However, a short-term buy-in has been swept aside by US President Joe Biden, who is leading a whirlwind visit to London to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and King Charles III to also discuss weaponry ahead of the two-day summit in Vilnius.

In the meantime, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose agreement is mandatory for Sweden to join the Alliance, put strong pressure on Monday. “First pave the way for Turkey’s accession to the European Union and then we will pave the way for Sweden just as we paved the way for Finland,” said the president who came to power. in 2014, when negotiations between Ankara and the EU have been stalled for several years.

He also reiterated his demands towards Sweden, which he accuses of leniency towards the Kurdish militants who have taken refuge on its soil, before his meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The president calls for dozens of extraditions of activists whom she describes as “terrorists”.

In response to these requirements, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz recalled that Turkey’s candidacy for the European Union is “not linked” to Sweden’s membership of NATO.

Sweden and its neighbor Finland ended decades of military non-alignment and asked to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Finland officially joined the Alliance in April. A year ago, at the previous NATO summit in Madrid, it took hours of negotiation to wrest support from Mr. Erdogan for the initial invitation to Stockholm.