“Give him a date!”
Erdogan wants to meet Swedish PM to discuss NATO membership
Sweden can now come one step closer to joining NATO. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has so far been opposed to joining, wants to receive the Swedish prime minister.
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The Turkish president has so far resisted Sweden’s entry into NATO. Erdogan is now ready to speak.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (68) wants to talk about Sweden and Finland joining NATO during a visit by new Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Christerson (58) in Turkey. “The new Swedish prime minister has asked for an appointment. And I said to our friends: “Give him a date!” Erdogan, according to what was reported by the NTV channel, on Friday.
“We will discuss these issues with him in our country,” Erdogan said on a plane back from Azerbaijan. Erdogan said the meeting would be a “test” of the Swedish head of state’s “honesty” in fighting terrorists. Exact date not available yet.
On Thursday, Christerson said he was ready “immediately” to travel to Ankara to urge Turkey to support Sweden’s bid for NATO.
Historic breach of neutrality
After Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Sweden and Finland broke their decades-old tradition of military alliance neutrality and applied for NATO membership in May. However, Turkey blocked the accession negotiations of the two Scandinavian countries to NATO. It accuses them of supporting supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Gulen movement, which Erdogan blames for the failed coup against him.
Sweden’s prime minister said he wanted to show Erdogan that Sweden and Finland “will indeed do what we promised.” At Ankara’s request, the two countries agreed to extradite the suspects from their countries to Turkey.
Hungary has yet to agree
But for Turkey, this did not go far enough. The Turkish president stressed that Ankara’s position has not changed. He called on Stockholm and Helsinki to hand over “these terrorists”.
So far, 28 of the 30 NATO member states have approved the accession of Sweden and Finland. Only Hungary and Turkey have not given their consent yet. (AFP/SDA)
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