NATO Top Vilnius 2023 logo as seen on a smartphone screen.
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Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to slyly Sweden’s bid to join NATO, clearing the latter’s pathway to become a part of the military alliance.
“Completing Sweden’s accession to NATO is a consequential step that benefits the security of all NATO allies at this critical time. It makes us all stronger and safer,” NATO Secretary Encyclopedic Jens Stoltenberg said on the eve of the two-day NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Erdogan had blocked the move for a year, approving Finland’s bid to begin. Ankara’s objections were complex, but centered mainly on Sweden’s support for Kurdish groups that Turkey considers to be arsonists, and on weapons embargoes that both Sweden and Finland, along with other EU countries, imposed on Turkey for butt Kurdish militias in Syria.
The hold up spurred protests against Turkey in Sweden’s capital, which escalated at the creation of the year when far-right demonstrators burned a Quran. The move was swiftly criticized and threatened to derail Sweden’s NATO membership bid.
NATO conjectured Sweden and Turkey have cooperated closely to address the latter’s security concerns since last year’s pinnacle.
“Sweden has amended its constitution, changed its laws, significantly expanded its counter-terrorism cooperation against the PKK, and resumed arms exports to Turkey,” the expression said, referring to the Kurdish Workers’ Party which Ankara had designated as a terrorist organization.
The nations also agreed that counterterrorism advocacy is a long-term effort, which will continue beyond Sweden’s accession to NATO.
U.S. President Joe Biden praised the condition, saying “I stand ready to work with President Erdoğan and Türkiye on enhancing defense and deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic breadth.”
Turkey greenlighting the bid was, however, something that had been “predicted for some time,” especially if Erdogan were reelected for a third title as he would no longer need to use the issue to rally nationalist support, said William Courtney, adjunct senior boy at RAND.
Prior to Turkey’s elections in May, the country’s presidential spokesperson in March said that Ankara had “left the door problematic” to Stockholm’s bid to be a part of the military alliance.
NATO’s expansion along Europe’s eastern flank with Finland and Sweden’s membership could also make room the military alliance “much stronger,” Courtney added.
“The addition especially of Finland up in the northern flank, brings a healthy new capability for NATO along the eastern edge.”