Before the NATO summit in Vilnius, there is movement around the discussion about Sweden joining the alliance: alongside Hungary, only Turkey is blocking Sweden’s admission to NATO. Now Turkish President Erdoğan is making a demand, to which he is making a commitment for Sweden to join NATO: he wants to bring his country closer to the European Union and lead it to full membership.
He said he wanted to make that clear to the 31 NATO heads of state and government at the summit. He expects the EU to pave the way for Turkey to join so that Turkey can pave Sweden’s way into NATO.
This step comes as a complete surprise: Turkey has been a candidate for accession since 1999 and negotiations began in 2005. Even then, Turkey’s possible accession to the EU was highly controversial. In 2016, the EU Commission spoke out in favor of freezing talks with Turkey. Recently, Turkey’s accession to the EU no longer seemed to be a topic of conversation.