Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom was confident that his country has done all to get Türkiye's approval for its NATO membership. Billstrom said Wednesday that Sweden had fulfilled its obligations in an agreement with Türkiye over NATO membership. It is time for the Turkish Parliament to start the ratification process to allow Sweden to join the alliance.
"Our judgment is that we have done what was expected of us; now it is time for the Turkish Parliament to start the ratification process," he told Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting in parliament.
Türkiye and Hungary long abstained from approving Sweden's membership of the alliance, citing insufficient efforts for counterterrorism, namely against PKK. This terrorist group claimed thousands of lives across Türkiye for decades. On Tuesday, a man accused of attempted terrorist financing of PKK appeared in a Swedish court, in the first such case in the Nordic country.
Türkiye has accused Sweden of being a haven for "terrorists," especially members of the PKK, and has asked Stockholm to extradite dozens of people. The accused, in his 40s, was arrested in January after making threats and firing a gun outside a restaurant in Stockholm.
According to prosecutors, the man aimed to extort money and use it to finance PKK. The prosecutor argued that the man played a key role in PKK activities in Sweden. According to the charge sheet, which also references evidence from French and German intelligence, the man had been in contact with people directly involved in funding the PKK and had acted on the group's behalf.
Sweden tightened its anti-terrorism legislation in July last year, making it easier to prosecute financing activities for terrorist organizations. This is the first time that the new law, already used in cases linked to Daesh, has been used against an alleged PKK supporter.
Ending two centuries of neutrality and military non-alignment, Sweden and neighboring Finland announced bids to join NATO in May last year after Russia invaded Ukraine.
