Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday introduced a new condition for approving Sweden's membership in NATO, calling on European countries to “open the way” for Turkiye to join the European Union.
The surprise announcement by Erdogan before departing to a NATO summit in Lithuania's capital added new uncertainty to Sweden's bid to become the alliance's 32nd member, which Turkiye initially blocked saying Sweden was too soft on Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara considers security threats.
“Come and open the way for Turkiye's membership in the European Union. When you pave the way for Turkiye, we'll pave the way for Sweden as we did for Finland,” he added. EU Commission spokesperson Dana Spinant said that “you cannot link the two processes in regards to Turkiye.” Turkiye's delays on Sweden's accession has irritated other NATO allies including the United States. Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed Sunday that Biden and Erdogan had spoken earlier that day about Sweden's NATO membership among other issues and had agreed to meet in Vilnius for further talks. Sullivan didn't mention the EU membership issue.“If it happens after Vilnius - we're confident it will happen,” he said.
“What we are counting on, of course, is to reach a point where we get a message back from President Erdogan that there will be what you might call a green light ... a message that the ratification process in the Turkish Parliament can start,” Billström told Swedish broadcaster SVT. Billström said he expected Hungary, which also hasn't ratified Sweden's accession, to do so before Turkiye.
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