NATO has officially invited Sweden and Finland to join the alliance. The accession can no longer go wrong, says a delighted Prime Minister Mark Rutte at the NATO summit in Madrid.
Turkey gave up its opposition to granting NATO membership to the two northern European countries on Tuesday evening. Ankara has stipulated, among other things, that Sweden and Finland will take stricter action against terrorist suspects from, among others, the Kurdish PKK. Since then, however, doubts have arisen as to whether that agreement will hold, because it is interpreted differently by the two camps.
But “it seems practically impossible to me” that things still go awry, says Rutte. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cannot back down with decency anymore, he believes. Erdogan “has committed himself so much, visibly to all leaders, to these agreements. It is very difficult not to let that happen.”