Sweden did not take any measures to fulfill the obligations upon joining NATO: Ankara
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu indicates that Sweden is not serious about its obligations to join NATO.
Turkey does not believe that Sweden is taking concrete steps to fulfill its commitments to Ankara regarding the country’s NATO membership, according to Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
Relations between Sweden and Turkey have deteriorated as a result of the recent controversial demonstration by Rasmus Paludan, the leader of the Danish far-right Stram Kurs party, which burned the Koran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm after receiving permission from the Swedish authorities.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that Sweden should not rely on Turkish support for its application for membership in NATO. According to a source, trilateral talks on NATO membership between Turkey, Sweden and Finland were postponed at Ankara’s request last week.
“We have not seen any concrete steps, particularly convincing concrete steps from Sweden to fulfill its commitments and implement this trilateral memorandum,” Cavusoglu said at a press conference with his Estonian counterpart, Urmas Reinsalu.
The minister added that Turkey is not imposing the idea of separate NATO bids on Finland and Sweden, but Ankara is ready to reconsider Helsinki’s application if there is such a decision.
“At this moment, it is not up to Turkey to separate [Sweden’s, Finland’s NATO bids]. It is up to these two countries, but mainly NATO. If NATO and the two countries decide to separate the membership processes for Finland and Sweden, Turkey will of course reconsider Finland’s membership separately, and more favorably I can say, says Cavusoglu.
On Tuesday, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said that the country could consider a connection procedure separated from Sweden after Stockholm hit a roadblock on its NATO route due to tensions with Ankara. But later in the day he denied that Helsinki was considering such a possibility, saying that Finland and Sweden continued to act jointly.
A few days earlier, Erdogan said that Ankara can decide to make a “different” decision on Finland’s bid for membership in NATO, which would inevitably “shock” Sweden.
“If necessary, we may deliver another message [answer] on Finnish membership. Sweden will be shocked when we give a different message about Finland,” Erdogan said at a meeting with young people in the town of Bilecik.
Following the outbreak of the Ukraine war, both Sweden and Finland submitted applications to join NATO last year. However, their accession proposal requires the unanimous approval of all 30 NATO member states to be considered.
Turkey is one of the two remaining countries that have not approved the applications, and they are trying to extract as many concessions as possible from the Scandinavian countries in exchange for approval of their ascension into NATO.