Turkey criticizes Sweden for not taking concrete steps to fulfill NATO obligations
Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, criticized Sweden for not taking “any concrete steps” in fulfilling its obligations to Ankara regarding the country’s accession to NATO.
“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, reported Sputnik.
Cavusoglu went on to say that Turkey does not want to impose the idea of separate NATO bids on Finland and Sweden, but because of Stockholm’s actions, Ankara is ready to reconsider Helsinki’s application if there is such a decision, he said.
Sweden has not taken any “concrete steps” to fulfill the obligations of NATO membership, says Turkey’s foreign minister
“At this moment, it is not up to Turkey to separate [Sweden’s and 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.
Notably, the relationship between Sweden and Turkey skyrocketed after the politician from the Danish far-right party Stram Kurs, Rasmus Paludan, burned the Koran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm after receiving permission from the Swedish authorities. This action was strongly condemned by the Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked Stockholm to take strict measures against such actions or forget Turkey’s support for the application to join NATO.
Earlier, the Turkish president had announced that his government may make a decision on Finland’s NATO membership that will “shock” Sweden. “Look, let me tell you something here tonight: We can give a different answer to Finland about NATO membership if needed, and Sweden will be shocked when we give this different answer for Finland,” the Turkish president said at a youth forum in Bilecik, western Turkey, on Sunday.
Finland could consider a separate accession procedure to join NATO, says Finnish FM
Meanwhile, Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Friday that the country may consider an accession process separate from Sweden after Sweden became embroiled in conflict with Turkey. However, Haavisto later confirmed that Helsinki was not considering such a possibility and said that Finland and Sweden continued to act jointly.