Scholz is convinced that Sweden’s NATO membership “will now move forward very quickly” | News | DW
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday that he expects rapid progress on Finland and Sweden’s NATO accession proposals.
Asked in Sweden if he expected continued opposition from Turkey to Stockholm’s bid to join NATO, Scholz said “I have great confidence that it will now move forward very quickly.”
He said he expected all NATO members to still ratify the Nordic countries’ bid “to do so soon, including Turkey.”
“In Finland and Sweden, we gain two valuable allies, which will strengthen NATO’s defensive capability and thus our collective security,” Scholz said in Stockholm together with the country’s Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.
Sweden and Finland, both neutral throughout the Cold War, applied to join NATO in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Turkey had opposed the bid, claiming the two countries harbored what it considers “terrorists” from Turkey, usually referring to either Kurds or allies of Fethullah Gulen, an opponent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Sweden’s Andersson said her government would stick to the terms of the memorandum of understanding signed with Turkey on the issue. She gave the example of a man extradited to Turkey on suspicion of fraud last week, saying the decision was made “according to Swedish and international law, and we will continue to work that way.”
War in Ukraine prompted “historic decisions” in Sweden, Germany
Scholz said Russia’s invasion had shown that the rules of the past few decades seemed to have been thrown out the window. He even used the German phrase that roughly translates as “epochal change” (Zeitenwende) which he also used when announcing a review of German defense policy shortly after the invasion.
“We can no longer be sure that what applied in previous decades – that borders should not be redrawn by force and that one does not try to attack one’s neighbor to take part of its territory – still applies,” Scholz said.
He said he was looking forward to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, saying “we need them”, adding that he believed this would make already “close and trusting” bilateral ties even closer.
Andersson said that in “dark times” for Ukraine and Europe, “European cooperation and unity is our strongest asset.”
She went on to praise swift decisions such as EU sanctions, noting that for Sweden and Germany – both largely pacifist since 1945 – the choice to arm Ukraine had not been a trivial decision. Germany in particular was criticized for its perceived indolence on this issue as one of the world’s largest arms exporters.
“The unity shown by European countries in response to this war was important and impressive. We very quickly decided on sanctions against Russia, unprecedented in their scope and size,” Andersson said. “And both our countries and other European countries made historic decisions, such as choosing to send military support to Ukraine and strengthening our own defenses.”
The competence of former finance ministers may soon be in demand again
Both leaders repeatedly referred to their strong past working relationship, dating back to when they were both finance ministers of their countries.
Andersson even joked that it was “no bad thing” for two former finance ministers to lead the German and Swedish governments at the moment, mentioning how the pair had discussed the economic effects of the war and other related factors.
“Energy availability and uncertainty have led to rising prices, and we have not experienced that in the last decades, and it affects the economy in Europe and globally as well,” Andersson said.
Scholz’s government faced demands for more spending and relief on Monday as a 2.4 cent per kilowatt-hour charge on gas for consumers was announced to deal with rising costs. Both Sweden and Germany have annual inflation of well over 7%, figures that no country has experienced in decades.
Andersson warned that while consumers are currently feeling the pinch and needed relief, in some cases due to phenomena that economists hope will prove to be temporary, it was also important for governments to act responsibly and think long-term when deciding how they will try to limit the effect. of rising living costs.
Both leaders also said the gas supply problems caused by the war had served as a further reminder of the need for Europe to limit its reliance on fossil fuels.
Therefore, they were prepared to leave to inspect a Scania facility south of Stockholm, which operates as part of a bilateral partnership, working to build viable electric heavy-duty trucks. To put it simply, the heavier a vehicle is, the harder it is to power it with electricity, meaning trucks are still seen as the toughest e-mobility nut to crack on public roads. The other notorious difficulty, range, is also critical to the freight industry in a way that it is not for most road users.
msh/aw (AFP, dpa, Reuters)
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