Sweden must keep a promise about Turkey’s fight against terrorism: Sweden’s prime minister
Sweden will fulfill its promises to Turkey within the framework of security and the fight against terrorism, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Friday.
Kristersson evaluated the tripartite memorandum, which was signed by Turkey, Finland and Sweden at the NATO summit in Madrid on June 28. The official also repeated Sweden’s promises to Turkey about global security and the fight against terrorism in his speech to a local newspaper.
“To be honest, this is not a tripartite memorandum, it is an agreement that Finland and Sweden promised Türkiye on security and combating terrorism. As we have said before, we will fulfill the commitments we promised Türkiye,” Kristersson said.
The trio signed a trilateral memorandum on June 28 at the NATO summit in Madrid to address Turkey’s legitimate security concerns, paving the way for Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership.
Regarding the new terror law expected to enter into force in Sweden in the spring of next year, the Swedish prime minister said: “We are talking about the terror law with Türkiye. Now this is the fact that we are involved. in the fight against terrorism together with NATO.”
Referring to the extension of Turkey’s approval process for Sweden’s NATO membership, Kristersson said: “The issue is now in Turkey’s hands, and I respect Turkey’s opinion. The agreement we signed with Turkey as Sweden and Finland shows that we take their security very seriously.”
At the same time, the second meeting of the permanent joint mechanism between Turkey, Finland and Sweden was held on Friday in Stockholm.
The meeting aimed to ensure the implementation of commitments in the trilateral memorandum.
Finland and Sweden give their full support to Türkiye against threats to the country’s national security, according to the memorandum. Therefore, Helsinki and Finland will not support terrorist organizations.
The Turkish delegation included presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalın, Sedat Önal, the Turkish deputy foreign minister and officials from other ministries.
In addition, Kalın also welcomed the latest statements by Kristersson, saying: “There is a will that individuals, organizations and similar structures that commit terrorist crimes against Türkiye should no longer operate in these countries.”
“The continuation, follow-up and realization of this will with concrete steps will of course speed up their NATO process,” he added.
The Swedish delegation was also led by the ambassador in the prime minister’s office Oscar Stenström and state secretary Jan Knutsson.
The Finnish delegation was led by Permanent State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jukka Salovaara and Petri Hakkarainen, Head of Foreign and Security Policy at the Office of the President of Finland.
They were joined by representatives from the foreign, judicial, police, security and intelligence services.
The Permanent Joint Mechanism welcomed the intensified cooperation at the technical level between relevant ministries and institutions and the progress achieved by Finland and Sweden in accordance with the memorandum. They decided to continue working on the implementation.
Sweden and Finland formally applied to join NATO in May, abandoning decades of military non-alignment, a decision spurred by Russia’s war on Ukraine.
But Türkiye expressed objections to their membership bid, accusing the two countries of tolerating and even supporting terrorist groups.
Stockholm and Helsinki reached an agreement with Ankara in June, which requires them not to support the PKK terrorist group and its offshoots, or the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) – the group behind the defeated 2016 coup in Turkey. Ankara has also demanded the extradition of terror suspects.
In its more than 40-year campaign of terror against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including female children and infants. The YPG is its Syrian offshoot.
Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have warned that Türkiye will not give the nod to Sweden and Finland’s membership until the memorandum is implemented.
Unanimous consent of all 30 existing allied countries is required for a country to join NATO.
