Sweden, Ulf Kristersson: we are ready to resume talks with Turkey on NATO

Finland and Sweden applied for membership FOR THIS after a military invasion Russia to Ukraine last year. Turkey together with Hungary, they are the only countries that have not yet ratified the enlargement of the Alliance to these two countries. After a relatively reached agreement, Ankara again suspended accession talks. The reason was tensions that intensified after anti-Turkish protests in Stockholm. During one of them, a far-right extremist Rasmus Paludan burned a copy of the Muslim holy book, the Koran.

“The first thing we need to do is to calm the situation down. Good conversations are hard to come by when everything around is on fire, said Ulf Kristersson during a Tuesday press conference during a visit to the Estonian capital, Riga.

The Prime Minister of Sweden recalled that the preconditions for the resumption of talks were good, but due to the approaching elections in May in Turkey, it became clear that the country’s authorities would focus on domestic policy. Kristersson also said that if Turkey is ready for talks, Sweden will be ready for them too.

President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Sweden of too little progress in implementing the agreement concluded at the NATO summit in late June last year. In the document, candidate Sweden and Finland committed themselves to fighting terrorism. Ankara wanted to expel people to Turkey, mainly Kurds who had received political asylum in Sweden.

Erdogan also made it clear that he was more willing to ratify only Finland’s membership in NATO. The authorities in Helsinki, however, do not take into account the scenario that they join the Alliance without Sweden.

Meanwhile, in Monday’s publications, the Swedish press estimates that the consequences are tragic earthquake that hit the southern regions of Turkeywill influence the election campaign ahead of the country’s elections in May and will facilitate Sweden’s accession to NATO.

“The real problem is the effects of the earthquake, not the quarrel with Sweden. Erdogan has other things to do than to burn the Koran in Stockholm,” wrote the daily Aftonbladet.

“When the threat comes from nature and not from Kurdish terrorist organizations, the Turkish president must keep his mouth shut,” writes the newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

“Swedish humanitarian aid will contribute to improving relations with Turkey. We can show that Sweden does not fit the picture presented by propaganda in the Middle East,” adds the daily “Svenska Dagbladet”.

The authorities in Helsinki expect Finland and Sweden to join NATO before the July summit in Vilnius.

“Whether Finland is ready to join NATO without Sweden is such a speculative question that it cannot be answered,” said Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto after meeting with his Swedish counterpart Tobias Billstrom.

Haavisto also admitted that so far “no progress has been noticed” in the ratification of the accession of Finland and Sweden by Turkey.

Finland’s president, Sauli Niinisto, who is in charge of Finland’s foreign policy in practice, also confirmed that Finland’s goal is to join NATO together with Sweden. – We stick together on this issue – the president admitted on Tuesday after a meeting in Helsinki with the Governor General of Canada Mary Simon.