Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has given up his block on Sweden joining the alliance, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a press conference in Vilnius. At a meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Erdoğan agreed to submit the accession protocol to the Turkish parliament as soon as possible.
A few hours ago, the Turkish President surprised people by wanting to make his country’s approval of Sweden’s admission to the defense alliance dependent on Turkey’s EU accession process being resumed. Addressing the EU countries on Monday before leaving for the NATO summit, he said: “First smooth the way for Turkey into the European Union, after that we smooth the way for Sweden, just as we smoothed it for Finland.”
Hungary and Turkey are the only ones of the 31 NATO members who have not yet agreed to admit Sweden. Turkey has officially been a candidate for accession to the EU since 1999, but negotiations for the country’s admission have been on hold for years. So far, Erdoğan has justified his hesitation by saying that the government in Stockholm is not taking tough enough action against “terrorist organizations”. For example, there are Turkish citizens living in Sweden who are being investigated in Turkey.