Erdogan does not signal any progress in Sweden’s NATO bid
NNN: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan noted on Saturday that no progress had been made in Sweden’s attempts to join NATO and called on Stockholm to take “concrete measures” to meet Ankara’s concerns, his office said.
In a telephone conversation with Sweden’s Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, Erdogan reiterated that “Sweden should take action on such fundamental issues as the fight against terrorism,” the Turkish presidency said in a statement.
Turkey “wanted to see binding commitments on these issues along with concrete and clear measures,” he added.
Finland and Sweden discussed their stalled NATO offerings with Turkey in Brussels on Monday, but Ankara shattered hopes that their dispute would be resolved before an alliance summit next week.
Turkish officials said Ankara did not see the summit as a deadline for resolving Ankara’s objections.
Ankara has accused Finland and Sweden in particular of providing a refuge for banned Kurdish militants whose decades-long uprising against the Turkish state has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
Erdogan told Andersson that Sweden “should make concrete changes in its attitude” towards the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its Syrian affiliates, the presidency said.
“In this regard, Sweden was not considered to have taken any concrete measures to address Turkey’s concerns,” he added.
The Turkish leader also expressed the expectation that Sweden would lift the arms embargo against Turkey that Stockholm introduced in 2019 over Ankara’s military offensive in Syria.
He also said that he hoped that restrictions on Turkey’s defense industry would be lifted and that Sweden would extradite several people whom Ankara had accused of involvement in terrorism.
The phone call comes after Erdogan discussed the two countries’ offer with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.
Erdogan also told Stoltenberg that “Sweden and Finland should take concrete and sincere action” against banned Kurdish militants, the presidency said.