Sweden could be a part of NATO by summer, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson believes, despite his country’s ongoing dispute with Türkiye.
"There is a chance, without any doubt," Kristersson told the Swedish news agency TT, according to a report on Thursday. While he did not put a timetable on it, he said he hoped "it will happen as soon as possible."
Earlier this week, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Sweden could not count on his country's support for accession after an Islamophobic politician burned a copy of the Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm.
An incident in the Swedish capital on Saturday where Danish anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan burned a copy of Islam’s holy book and delivered a hate-filled speech with permission from Swedish authorities under police protection has brought tensions to the boiling point between Ankara and Stockholm.
However, Türkiye has never explicitly said that the door was completely closed to Sweden, Kristersson told TT. This was also the impression given by the rounds of talks held with Türkiye since last summer, he said.
"We can have different views on where in the process we are, but there is no doubt about the ultimate goal of the process," the prime minister said.
Indeed, even after the Quran burning incident, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar expressed Ankara’s support for NATO’s open-door policy, echoing previous statements from Turkish officials that the country champions the enlargement push.
“We are not the enemy of Sweden and Finland and we don’t stand in the way of their NATO membership,” Akar said and added: “But it is unacceptable to overlook and stay silent, unguarded against every kind of ignominy and despicable attempt.”
Erdoğan himself slammed Swedish authorities for their “toleration” of extremists and terrorist sympathizers alike, which stands as the major roadblock to Stockholm securing Ankara’s approval.
Kristersson also pointed to the pressure that would be put on Türkiye by a large majority of NATO countries. "But it is Türkiye that makes the Turkish decision and no one else."
Sweden and Finland applied to join the defense alliance last year. So far 28 of the 30 NATO countries have approved the applications, with only Hungary and Türkiye holding out against them.
"It would be very bad for Swedish security if it took longer than absolutely necessary," Kristersson said. He added that it was now a matter of cooling down the "heated situation," and that he was "ready to talk to Erdoğan at any time."
But Türkiye has indefinitely postponed NATO talks with the Nordic countries due to what it described as their “unchanging stance on supporting terrorists and anti-Türkiye propaganda.”
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Thursday reiterated the current “unhealthy political environment” and invited Sweden to contemplate “whether they want to really join NATO or not.”
He further argued Kristersson’s government became “an accomplice to a hate crime by allowing this vile act” and said it was "meaningless" to hold a trilateral meeting with Sweden and Finland after protests this month in Stockholm.
He also revealed Ankara hasn’t yet received an official proposal from Finland to separate its NATO membership process from that of Sweden’s after Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said for the first time earlier this week that Helsinki “might consider joining NATO without Sweden.”
Çavuşoğlu continued to say that there are segments in Sweden that do not want Stockholm to join NATO and which therefore "plant mines" in the process. "Sweden must choose either to demine its route to joining NATO or step on those mines and blow up its chances," he added.
As per the tripartite memorandum, the sides inked in June last year, Stockholm has vowed to meet the said demands, including extraditing and increasing its crackdown on terrorist groups. For the previous month, however, public support in Sweden for the terrorist groups from their sympathizers has been raising the tensions between the two countries, which Ankara has repeatedly warned would jeopardize Stockholm’s NATO membership process.
