Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said ratification of Sweden’s application to join NATO may not happen until his country’s parliament returns from a two-month summer recess, highlighting differing views on what was agreed between the countries at the alliance’s summit this week.
(Bloomberg) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said ratification of Sweden’s application to join NATO may not happen until his country’s parliament returns from a two-month summer recess, highlighting differing views on what was agreed between the countries at the alliance’s summit this week.
Erdogan, speaking on Wednesday at the end of a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, said his government would submit the bill after Stockholm shares a new plan about cracking down on Kurdish separatist groups.
Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom took a different view on the agreement struck on Monday, in which Turkey agreed to support Sweden’s membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Nordic country made various pledges to Ankara.
“Sweden has committed to present a roadmap for the fight against terrorism but that won’t be launched until after ratification has happened,” he said. That’s because “that article in the agreement states that it will happen at the first meeting of the Security Compact,” a new body for bilateral cooperation between the two countries agreed upon on Monday set to start work “once ratification is completed,” he said.
NATO’s northern enlargement represents a major breakthrough for the military alliance’s push to strengthen its defenses following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Erdogan returned home late Wednesday and is expected to seek support of his nationalist ally Devlet Bahceli to ratify Sweden’s bid. Turkey’s parliament is set to go into recess on Friday unless it decides to work an extra week to wrap up pending legislation.
Erdogan’s government may seize that window to officially ask lawmakers to ratify the bid if Stockholm has a terror roadmap in place. For more than a year, Turkey held up Sweden’s application citing concerns that it isn’t doing enough to clamp down on Kurdish separatist groups that Ankara views as terrorist organizations.
Erdogan vowed to make Sweden’s bid a priority for debate when the legislature resumes work possibly mid-September.
“Our goal is to finish this job as soon as possible,” Erdogan said without giving a clear timeline.
Sweden’s expectation is that Turkey completes the accession paperwork with no delay, with Billstrom noting that Turkish lawmakers have yet to begin their recess.
“They are meeting as we speak and will convene this weekend to hear President Erdogan speak on the anniversary of the 2016 coup attempt,” he said. “We see good conditions for the Turkish parliament to ratify the Swedish application. We expect ratification to happen as soon as possible.”
The Turkish leader has linked Sweden’s NATO membership bid to Ankara’s efforts to join the European Union. On Wednesday, he repeated those expectations.
Read More: Erdogan Links Sweden’s NATO Membership to Turkey’s EU Bid
Erdogan said Turkey was expecting Sweden to support its stalled bid to join the EU and update a customs union deal between Ankara and the bloc as well as visa liberalization for Turkish citizens — all demands Sweden on Monday agreed to “actively support.”
–With assistance from Kati Pohjanpalo.
(Updates with comments from Sweden’s Billstrom from third paragraph.)
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