Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Wednesday claimed talks with Türkiye about his country’s membership process to NATO are "going well," clarifying that his previous remarks about fulfilling Stockholm’s commitments were "misunderstood."
"We have the fullest respect for the fact that Türkiye and every other of the 30 NATO countries make their own domestic decisions on whether to ratify or not," Kristersson told reporters in the capital Stockholm.
He pointed out that there was a "misunderstanding" about his previous comment on Türkiye's demands.
On Sunday, the Swedish premier said that Stockholm cannot fulfill all of Ankara's conditions for approving its application to join NATO. "Türkiye has confirmed that we have done what we said we would do, but they also say they want concessions that we can't make, those we don't want to make," he had claimed.
However, Kristersson said Wednesday that he respected Ankara's right to make its own decision on ratification.
"We have shown for Türkiye that we are doing exactly what we promised to do," he said, adding: "It has been a very rapid process. We feel very strong support from countries."
He also said that there are limits to what Sweden can do when it comes to extraditing individuals to Ankara, according to the Politico website.
Kristersson was also backed by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg who argued the Nordic country “deserved Ankara's support for approval of its membership in the alliance even though Türkiye did not see the progress it expected.”
Alarmed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the two Nordic nations threw away their longstanding policies of military nonalignment and applied to join NATO in May but the process has been held up by the Turkish government’s objections to their accession on grounds of security concerns.
A month later in June, the sides inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at a NATO summit in Madrid stipulating that the two countries take concrete steps to address the said concerns, increase their crackdown on terrorist organizations like the PKK and FETÖ, and extradite people suspected of terrorism-related crimes.
Türkiye has provided a list of wanted individuals to Sweden and expects the Scandinavian nation to take swift action to show that its demands are being addressed.
To garner Ankara’s hard-earned approval, Stockholm extradited three people, including a PKK terrorist member, to Türkiye in early December. Ankara welcomed the development but said it “wasn’t enough” for a greenlight. As of the new year, Sweden has also taken into effect a constitutional amendment that enables “greater possibilities to make use of legal means to limit freedom of association for groups that engage in or support terrorism.”
However, Sweden’s top court last month refused to extradite a prominent FETÖ suspect, Bülent Keneş, in a move that was displeasing for Ankara, with Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu declaring the country “not even halfway through fulfilling the commitments” it made to secure their support.
Talks between Stockholm, Helsinki and Ankara are expected to continue throughout this month.
