Erdogan wants to meet with Swedish prime minister to discuss NATO membership

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (68) wants to discuss the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO during a visit to the new Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (58) in Turkey. “Sweden’s new prime minister has asked for an appointment. I said to our friends, ‘Give him an appointment!’” NTV quoted Erdogan as saying on Friday.

“We will discuss these issues with him in our country,” Erdogan explained on a plane on the way back from Azerbaijan. The meeting will serve to “test” the Swedish head of state’s “sincerity” in the fight against terrorists, Erdogan said. A specific date has not yet been announced.

Kristersson said on Thursday that he was “immediately” ready to travel to Ankara to urge Turkey to support Sweden’s NATO bid.

Historic Violation of Neutrality

Following the Russian attack on Ukraine, Sweden and Finland broke with their decades-long tradition of neutrality of military alliances and applied for NATO membership in May. However, Turkey blocked the NATO accession negotiations of the two Scandinavian countries. She accuses them of supporting supporters of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Gülen movement, which blames Erdogan for the failed coup against him.

The Swedish prime minister said he wanted to show Erdogan that Sweden and Finland “will really do what we have promised”. At Ankara’s insistence, the two countries had agreed to extradite suspects from their country to Turkey.

Hungary has yet to agree

For Turkey, however, this has not gone far enough. The Turkish president stressed that Ankara’s position has not changed. He called on Stockholm and Helsinki to extradite “these terrorists”.

So far, 28 out of 30 NATO members have approved the accession of Sweden and Finland. Only Hungary and Turkey have yet to give their consent. (AFP/SDA)