Sweden sends a delegation to Turkey for NATO talks: FM Linde
Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde announced on Wednesday that a delegation from the country’s Ministry of the Interior will go to Turkey for NATO talks next week.
Linde tells TT, the country’s official news agency, that negotiations with Türkiye continue without problems.
Linde, noting that Sweden expects Turkey to approve its NATO membership, said: “However, I do not know when Türkiye will approve it. Last week, at the UN meeting in New York, I met my Turkish counterpart ( Mevlüt) Çavuşoğlu. We went through the negotiations, everything is going well. We are keeping the agreement.”
Linde’s announcement came after Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ said that a delegation from Sweden will visit Turkey on October 5-6 to discuss the issue of extradition of criminals.
A tripartite memorandum was signed by Turkey, Finland and Sweden at the NATO summit in Madrid on 28 June before the first meeting of the permanent joint mechanism established under the memorandum was held on 26 August in Vantaa, Finland.
The two Nordic countries applied to join the security alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but faced opposition from Türkiye, which accuses them of imposing an arms embargo on Ankara and supporting groups it considers terrorists.
Turkey lifted its veto during a NATO summit in June in exchange for what it said were concrete gains on the issue. But Ankara has since said that the Nordic countries have not taken the desired steps.
The three countries signed an agreement to lift Ankara’s veto in exchange for pledges against terrorism, but Türkiye has said it will block membership bids if pledges are not kept. They have requested the extradition of 73 people from Sweden and a dozen others from Finland.