2023-07-11 03:53:43
Turkey lifted its veto on Sweden’s entry into NATO on Monday, according to the Alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, at a press conference.
The Norwegian politician made the announcement after holding a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Vilnius, a day before the NATO leaders’ summit in the capital. lithuanian
“This is a historic day because we have a clear commitment from Turkey to send the ratification documents (for Sweden’s NATO membership) to the Grand National Assembly (Turkish parliament) and to work closely with the assembly to ensure the ratification”Stoltenberg stated.
He said he was “happy to announce” that as a result of today’s meeting in Vilnius the president Erdogan has agreed to send the documents to the Turkish Parliament to ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO.
However, he stressed that he does not know the exact deadlines in which Turkey will ratify the Swedish entry into the Alliance.
Regarding Hungary, which has not yet ratified Sweden’s entry, he recalled that Budapest had assured in the past that it would not be the last country to give the green light to Stockholm’s entry.
Officially, Turkey had so far blocked Sweden’s accession to NATO, considering that the Nordic country has a too lax stance on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)a guerrilla group that began an armed struggle against the Turkish state in 1984 and is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, Sweden, the European Union and the United States.
Following those Turkish complaints, Sweden has reformed its anti-terrorism legislation and has criminalized the mere membership of, or financial or other support of, a terrorist organization.
Sweden and Finland changed the position of neutrality that they had maintained for three decades and, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, they applied to join NATO.
Finland became the 31st member of the Alliance in April 2023.
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