Sweden takes a closer look at the US’s defense ties as NATO talks drag on
Sweden said on Monday that it had started talks with the United States about deepening defense cooperation Turkey continues to block the Nordic country’s NATO membership.
Sweden’s defense ministry said the two nations negotiated an agreement for “even closer cooperation with the United States both bilaterally and within the framework of NATO.”
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Exactly what the so-called Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) will cover is being negotiated, “but it makes it easier for US troops to operate in Sweden,” says Defense Minister Pal Jonson in a written statement to AFP.
– This could mean the storage of military supplies, investments in infrastructure to enable support and the legal status of American troops in Sweden, says Jonson.
“The negotiations are being initiated because Sweden is about to become an ally with the United States, through NATO membership,” the minister added.
Breaking with decades of military non-alignment, Sweden and Finland applied to join the US-led defense alliance last year in response to Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine.
Turkey has refused to ratify its NATO applications and accuses both countries of providing sanctuary to outlawed Kurdish groups it considers “terrorists”.
Most of Turkey’s demands have involved Sweden because of its stronger ties with the Kurdish diaspora.
Ankara has specifically demanded that Sweden extradite people Turkey accuses of terrorism or having played a role in the 2016 attempt to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
During a security conference in Sweden on Sunday, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who met Erdogan in Turkey in December, said that some of Ankara’s demands could not be accepted by Sweden.
“Turkey has confirmed that we have done what we said we would do, but it also says that it wants things that we cannot, that we do not want, to give it,” Kristersson said.
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