Sweden has taken "concrete action" to address Türkiye's concerns over its NATO membership bid, including stepping up counterterrorism efforts against PKK-linked militants, Stockholm told Ankara in a letter dated Oct. 6 and seen by Reuters.
The two-page letter gives 14 examples of steps taken by Sweden to show it "is fully committed to the implementation" of a memorandum it signed with Türkiye and Finland in June, which resulted in NATO member Türkiye lifting its veto of their applications to the trans-Atlantic security alliance.
Sweden and Finland launched their bids to join NATO in May in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but ran into objections from Türkiye, which accuses the two Nordic countries of harboring what it says are militants from the banned PKK and other groups.
Stockholm and Helsinki deny harboring terrorists but have pledged to cooperate with Ankara to address its security concerns fully and to lift arms embargoes. Yet President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said as recently as Oct. 6 that its demands had not yet been met.
In its letter to Türkiye, Sweden said that "concrete action has been taken on all core elements of the trilateral agreement."
Sweden's security and counter-terrorism police, Sapo, "has intensified its work against the PKK," and it made "a high-level visit" to Türkiye in September for meetings with the Turkish intelligence agency, the letter said.
Sweden's Foreign Ministry, Türkiye's Foreign Ministry and the communications arm of Erdoğan's office each did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.
Swedish officials delivered the letter, which was not previously reported, to Erdoğan's office and the Foreign Ministry at the weekend, a source familiar with the situation said, requesting anonymity due to sensitivity over it.
The letter was meant to reassure Türkiye of Sweden's efforts amid ongoing bilateral talks and to encourage ultimate approval of the NATO membership bid, the source added.
According to the letter, Swedish authorities "carried out new analyses of PKK's role in threats to Sweden's national security and in organized crime (and) this is likely to lead to concrete results."
The PKK, which took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984, is considered a terrorist group by Türkiye, the European Union and the United States. As part of talks over the June memorandum, Türkiye has sought the extradition of 73 people from Sweden and a dozen others from Finland, where it is concerned with other groups.
The letter says Stockholm extradited one Turkish citizen on Aug. 31 upon Ankara's request, after an Aug. 11 decision, and that a total of four extraditions have been made to Türkiye since 2019.
Extraditions were discussed by a Swedish delegation visiting Ankara in early October, according to the letter.
"Sweden is committed to address ... pending extradition requests of terror suspects expeditiously and thoroughly," taking into account Turkish intelligence and in accordance with Swedish law and the European Convention on Extradition, the letter said.
The parliaments of all 30 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states must approve Sweden and Finland's bids, which would mark a historic enlargement of the alliance as the war in Ukraine continues.
In a sign that talks were progressing, Sweden's foreign minister said Friday he expects the last two holdouts, Türkiye and Hungary, to vote soon on its NATO applications.
Turkish broadcasters quoted Erdoğan saying on Friday that Sweden's newly appointed Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson backs the fight against terrorism and that they would meet to discuss the NATO bid and extraditions.
A day earlier, Kristersson said after meeting with NATO's secretary general that his government "will redouble efforts to implement the trilateral memorandum with Finland and Türkiye."