After nearly a year of negotiations and brinkmanship, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has agreed to set aside his veto and recommend to his parliament that Sweden’s application to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) be accepted. The breakthrough came on Monday night during last-minute talks on the eve of the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.
The dispute between Turkey and Sweden centered around Turkey’s demand for Sweden to take more action against exiled Kurdish activists it accuses of terrorism. However, Erdoğan has now agreed to forward Sweden’s accession protocol to the Turkish parliament for ratification. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced the news, expressing his satisfaction with the agreement.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson described the development as a “very big step” towards membership, while Stoltenberg refrained from providing a specific timeline for Sweden’s entry into the alliance.
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“This feels very good, this has been my aim for a long time, and I believe we had a very fine response today and took a very big step towards membership,” Kristersson told reporters.
Approval from Hungary is still pending, but the Hungarian government has pledged not to be the last to approve the membership, indicating that it will follow suit.
World leaders, including US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, welcomed the news and expressed their readiness to work with President Erdoğan and Turkey to enhance defense and deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic area. Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, also hailed the agreement, highlighting the importance of collective security.
In addition to their NATO membership, Turkey and Sweden will strengthen counter-terrorism coordination and bilateral trade ties. Sweden has reassured Ankara that it will not support terrorist organizations and has agreed to establish a new bilateral security mechanism between the two countries.
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During the negotiations, Erdoğan held a side meeting with European Council President Charles Michel to discuss EU-Turkey cooperation. While opportunities for cooperation were explored, EU members remain skeptical of Turkey’s commitment to democratic and rule of law reforms.
Earlier, Erdoğan linked Ankara’s surprise move to support Sweden’s NATO bid to Turkey joining the EU.
“I am calling from here on these countries that are making Turkey wait at the door of the European Union for more than 50 years,” he said before his departure for the NATO summit in Vilnius. “First, come and open the way for Turkey at the European Union and then we will open the way for Sweden, just as we did for Finland,” he said.
But, according to Sinan Ulgen, a former diplomat and director of the Istanbul-based Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies, the Turkish leader’s surprise move would not make Turkey’s hand stronger at the Vilnius summit.
“The positive side of this surprise move is that it showed Turkey still has an EU membership perspective. But it is hard to say it would help any progress on Turkey’s EU membership bid,” Ulgen said.
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