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Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg will convene a meeting between Turkey’s president and the prime minister of Sweden, as the military alliance strains to secure Ankara’s approval for Stockholm’s accession next week.
Sweden reversed generations of military neutrality by applying to join Nato in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February, but Turkey has blocked the process by claiming that Stockholm has not taken sufficient steps to crack down on terrorism.
But Stoltenberg said Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Ulf Kristersson would meet in Vilnius on the eve of Nato’s annual summit in the Lithuanian capital, adding that it was “absolutely possible to have a positive decision” at the gathering of the alliance’s leaders.
“Today we reaffirmed that Sweden’s membership is within reach,” Stoltenberg said after a meeting of senior Turkish, Swedish and Finnish ministers at the alliance’s Brussels headquarters aimed at finding a way to securing Erdoğan’s approval. “What’s important is that we have a positive outcome next week.”
Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan said after the Brussels meeting that while Sweden had made progress in meeting Ankara’s demands by tightening anti-terror legislation, he remained concerned about the extent to which it will be enforced.
“Sweden has taken steps in terms of legislative changes, but legislative changes need to be reflected in practice,” Fidan said.
Fidan said Turkey remained troubled by recent public protests in Sweden, in which activists have held the flag of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), an armed militia that has fought the Turkish state for decades. He also reiterated Turkey’s deep objection to Stockholm’s decision to allow a small protest last week in which a Koran was burnt at the start of a major Muslim holiday.
“Allowing an . . . attack on the Koran, the holy book of billions of Muslims, on the first day of Eid al-Adha is not something that we can ignore. And this is not the first time this has happened,” he said.
In a potential sign of progress in appeasing Turkish demands, a Swedish court on Thursday sentenced a Turkish man to jail for providing financing to the PKK, which the US, EU and Turkey all classify as a terrorist organisation.
Nato requires all existing members to ratify applicants in order for them to join the alliance, typically through parliamentary assent. Hungary is also yet to approve Sweden’s membership, but Budapest is unlikely to remain opposed if Turkey relents, officials said.
Sweden had applied to join Nato alongside neighbour Finland, and Turkey’s parliament had initially blocked both applications before separating the two countries and approving Finland in April.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken stressed in a call with Fidan “the importance of Nato unity in such a critical time and encouraged Turkey’s support for Sweden to join the Nato alliance now”, according to the state department.
Turkey is seeking a deal with the US to purchase billions of dollars worth of F-16 fighter jets, but the pact has been held up by Congress. The Joe Biden administration approved a $259mn F-16 upgrade package in April, shortly after Ankara agreed to allow Finland to join Nato. Turkey has insisted that the F-16 purchases should be separated from the Nato negotiations.