Erdogan supports Sweden joining NATO. NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg declares that the Turkish President is giving up his resistance. The news ticker.
Update from July 11, 8:45 a.m.: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg sees NATO as a whole strengthened with the end of the Turkish blockade against Sweden’s accession. The agreement reached with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the previous evening significantly strengthens the defense of the alliance and is also in the interests of Turkey itself, said Stoltenberg on Tuesday in Vilnius before the official start of the NATO summit. He is “absolutely confident” that Turkey will now ratify Sweden’s accession protocol and that the main problem has been solved, he said. “This summit is historic before it even began,” said Stoltenberg.
NATO summit in Vilnius: Biden welcomes Turkish decision
Update from July 11, 5:45 a.m.: The dispute over Sweden’s NATO membership threatened to overshadow the meeting in Vilnius. The relief was correspondingly great after Erdogan gave up his blocking stance. US President Joe Biden welcomed Turkey’s decision and said he looks forward to welcoming Sweden as NATO’s 32nd member. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described the agreement on Twitter as a “historic step”.
NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg referred to several steps that Sweden had taken, including changes to the constitution and laws, an expansion of anti-terrorist cooperation against the Kurdish PKK and the resumption of arms exports to Turkey. Both countries want to talk bilaterally about security in the future. According to Stoltenberg, NATO will also be given the post of special coordinator for anti-terrorist tasks for the first time. However, Stoltenberg evaded the answer to the question of when Sweden’s NATO accession could be completed.
Sweden joining NATO: Russia speaks of “provocative decision”
Update from July 11, 3:20 a.m.: The chairman of Russia’s Defense and Security Committee told Russian state media that Turkey is turning into an “unfriendly country” after a series of “provocative decisions”. “Unfortunately, the events of the last few weeks clearly show that Turkey is gradually and steadily changing from a neutral country to an unfriendly one,” Viktor Bondarev told the state news agency TASS.
“A good day for Sweden”: Kristersson is satisfied
Update from July 10, 10:50 p.m.: Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has expressed his satisfaction with the agreement reached in the NATO dispute with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “It was a good day for Sweden,” said the head of government at a press conference in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius on Monday evening. He is very happy that Erdogan, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and he were able to agree on a joint declaration, with which a very big step was taken towards the formal ratification of Sweden’s NATO accession.
Breakthrough before the summit: Erdogan clears the way for Sweden to join NATO
Update from July 10, 9:35 p.m.: According to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is giving up his block on Sweden joining the alliance. At a meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Erdogan agreed to submit the accession protocol to the Turkish parliament as soon as possible, Stoltenberg said at a press conference in Vilnius on Monday evening.
Update from July 10, 8:00 p.m.: According to the US government, Turkey’s approval of Sweden’s admission to NATO and Turkey’s EU accession are “separate issues”. “The United States has supported Turkey’s EU aspirations for years and continues to do so,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in Washington on Monday. But it is a matter between the European Union and Turkey. The question of resuming Turkey’s EU accession process, which was put on hold years ago, should not be an “obstacle” to Sweden’s entry into the defense alliance, Miller added.
Erdogan meets Kristersson: Scholz contradicts Turkish demands
Update from July 10, 5:20 p.m.: The meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has begun. This is reported by the Turkish broadcaster TRT. The participants want to appear together before the press afterwards.
Update from July 10, 3:40 p.m.: Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) spoke out against linking Sweden’s NATO accession with a revival of the EU accession process with Turkey. Both questions would not be related, Scholz said on Monday in Berlin. “That’s why I don’t think it should be understood as a coherent topic.” Scholz confirmed that Sweden met all the requirements for joining NATO. “I hope that we will soon succeed in Sweden becoming a NATO member.”
Erdogan sets the condition: Turkey should be allowed to join the EU
Update from July 10, 12:18 p.m.: Turkish head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan supports Sweden joining NATO if the EU resumes accession talks with Turkey. “First open the way for Turkey’s accession to the European Union, and then we open the way for Sweden,” Erdogan said on Monday shortly before this week’s NATO summit in Lithuania. There he is to meet Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in the late afternoon for talks about Sweden’s desire to join NATO, which Turkey has so far blocked.
The statement comes as a surprise. So far, Erdogan had cited Sweden’s insufficient action against “terrorist organizations” from a Turkish perspective as the main reason for Turkey’s blockade of NATO accession. The EU had already started accession talks with Turkey in 2005. However, these were put on hold again a few years ago because Brussels saw unacceptable developments in the area of the rule of law.
NATO chief expects “positive decision”
First report: Ankara/Stockholm – One day before the start of the NATO summit in Vilnius, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson will meet on Monday for a final attempt at mediation in the dispute over Sweden’s accession. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who invited to the meeting in the Lithuanian capital, hopes that Erdogan will withdraw his veto against Sweden’s NATO membership.
Stoltenberg said on Thursday that he wanted to “close the gap” between the two countries with the meeting. He thinks it is “absolutely possible” to get a “positive decision” from Turkey at the summit in Lithuania. For his part, Erdogan promised on Friday “to make the best decision.”
Earlier on Sunday there had been a phone call between Erdogan and US President Joe Biden. On the sidelines of the NATO summit, a personal meeting of the two is to take place in Vilnius, as the Turkish presidency announced on Sunday. Accordingly, Erdogan said in the phone call that Sweden had “taken some steps in the right direction”. Besides Turkey, Hungary has not yet ratified Sweden’s Act of Accession.
Erdogan sees Sweden as a “haven for terrorists”
Ankara repeatedly accuses Sweden of being a haven for “terrorists,” meaning members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and supporters of the so-called Gülen movement. The AKP government is demanding that Sweden hand over around 130 “terrorists”, including several journalists such as Bülent Kenes.
Erdogan had personally called for the journalist and scientist to be extradited, citing this as a condition of his approval of Sweden’s accession to NATO. “The extradition of this terrorist to Turkey is very important for us,” Erdogan said at a joint press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Ankara in early November last year. The Swedish Supreme Court has so far refused to extradite the exiled Kenes.
Türkiye urgently needs modern fighter jets from the USA
Turkey, on the other hand, needs US support in other areas. The Turkish air force is outdated and Ankara wants to buy new F-16 fighter jets and modernization packages for existing machines from Washington. The US Congress had not yet approved the deal. A statement from the White House also states that during yesterday’s phone call, Biden made it clear that he expected Sweden to become a member as soon as possible. (With agency material)