'No change in Turkey’s stance on Sweden’s Nato membership'

Associated Press

Ankara, Turkey: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Nato should not bet on his country approving Sweden’s application to join the Western military alliance before a July summit because the Nordic nation has not fully addressed his security concerns. Sweden and Finland applied for membership together following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

Finland became Nato’s 31st member in April after the Turkish parliament ratified its request, but Turkey has held off approving Sweden’s bid. Nato wants to bring Sweden into the fold by the time the leaders of member nations meet for a summit in Lithuania’s capital on July 11-12. Speaking to journalists on his way back from a state visit to Azerbaijan on Tuesday, Erdogan said Turkey’s attitude to the accession was not “positive.”

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency and other media reported Erdogan’s comments as senior officials from Nato, Sweden, Finland and Turkey met in Ankara on Wednesday. The officials discussed what Finland and Sweden have done to address Turkey’s concerns over alleged terrorist organizations. Erdogan said the Turkish delegation at the meeting “will give this message: ‘This is our president’s opinion, don’t expect anything different at Vilnius,’” Lithuania’s capital.

Turkey’s government accuses Sweden of being too lenient toward groups that Ankara says pose a security threat, including militant Kurdish groups and people associated with a 2016 coup attempt. A series of separate demonstrations in Stockholm, including a protest by an anti-Islam activist who burned the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy, also angered Turkish officials.

Speaking in Sweden’s parliament, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called the Ankara meeting “very important.” Kristersson reiterated that his government had done what it promised in an agreement last year that was intended to secure Turkey’s ratification of the country’s Nato membership.