Türkiye give in and agree to lift his veto to the Swedish accession to NATO. After months and weeks of intense negotiations, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has accepted this Monday to submit “as soon as possible & rdquor; Sweden’s accession protocol to the Atlantic Alliance to a vote in Turkey’s parliamentary assembly and work closely with the Turkish chamber to remove the great obstacle that existed for the Nordic country’s incorporation into the Euro-Atlantic organization. “It is a historic step that makes all the allies stronger and safer”, the General Secretary of the Atlantic Alliance has celebrated, Jens Stoltenbergafter meeting this Monday in Lithuania, where a summit of NATO leaders is being held this Tuesday and Wednesday, with Erdogan and the Swedish prime minister, ulf kristersson.
Applause at the end of the talks hosted in Vilnius by #BORN General Secretary@jensstoltenbergwith President@RTErdogan🇹🇷 &@SwedishPMKristersson 🇸🇪 pic.twitter.com/KIQKKd3mvX
— Oana Lungescu (@NATOpress) July 10, 2023
Stoltenberg had been pressuring Turkey for months and insisting that Sweden, which will become the 32nd member of the alliance, already met all the conditions included in the trilateral memorandum agreed a year ago at the NATO summit in Madrid when the allied countries approved the entry of both Sweden and Finland, which completed its accession in April. Since then he had amended its constitution, revised its anti-terrorism legislation, expanded cooperation against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and resumed arms exports to Turkey. Yet Erdogan kept dragging his feet and resisting.
To the point that this Monday, shortly before taking the plane that was to transfer him from Turkey to Lithuania, he linked the approval to Sweden to the accession process from your country to the EU. “First, open the way for Turkey to the European Union, and then, as we did before with Finland, we will also pave the way for Sweden & rdquor ;, he said about an accession that they requested in 1999 and whose negotiations have been totally blocked for eight years.
accession to the EU
Both the EU and the US have reacted quickly by reminding Ankara that both “They are separate processes & rdquor; But Stockholm has had no other choice, to achieve an end to the blockade, than to commit to Erdogan to revitalize Turkey’s accession negotiations to the EU and promote the modernization of the customs union and the liberalization of visas.
So has the President of the European Council, Charles-Michel, who has also met in Vilnius with Erdogan. Another meeting that the Turk has known how to squeeze to the maximum. According to a message posted on his social networks, the Belgian liberal has announced that he will cooperate with Erdogan to “revitalize & rdquor; relations although without mentioning adhesion. Of course, he has commissioned the European Commission and the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, that they prepare a report to review the “strategic & rdquor; with Türkiye.
“This is a historic day because we have a clear commitment from Turkey that it will present the ratification documents to the Grand National Assembly,” Stoltenberg repeated without setting dates but confirming that Hungary – the other country that has not ratified the Swedish entry – also will be in a position to ratify the accession protocol before the Turkish parliament. “The president has made it clear that this will happen as soon as possible. Then it is up to parliament to carry out the process and the final ratification. I will not give the exact dates but it is a clear commitment and the president has made it clear that it will happen as soon as possible & rdquor ;, he added.
cooperation against terrorism
Related news
Another series of commitments also come out of the three-way match. Sweden and Türkiye commit themselves, for example, to working on a newor bilateral security pact which will meet annually at the ministerial level and will create working groups. At the first meeting, the Swedish government will have to present a road map on its fight against terrorism. In addition, it reiterates that it will not support organizations that Turkey considers terrorist.
In this context, Stoltenberg has also announced that he will establish, for the first time in NATO, the post of special coordinator for the fight against terrorism and has pledged to uphold the principle that there should be no restrictions, barriers, or sanctions to trade and investment in defense among allies. “We have been able to reconcile the concerns that Turkey has expressed and the concerns that Sweden has expressed,” the Norwegian leader, who has insisted that the Swedish incorporation will be good for all the allies, including Turkey, has satisfied.