ANKARA, Turkey -- Sweden’s new prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, is meeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday in an effort to clinch Turkish approval for his country’s bid to join NATO.
Sweden and Finland abandoned their longstanding policies of military nonalignment and applied for membership in the military alliance after Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February, fearing that Russian President Vladimir Putin might target them next.
But Turkey, which joined NATO in 1952, has been holding off on endorsing their bids, accusing Sweden — and to a lesser degree Finland — of ignoring Ankara’s security concerns. Erdogan’s government is pressing the two countries to crack down on individuals it considers terrorists, including supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and people suspected of orchestrating a failed 2016 coup in Turkey.
Turkey also has called for the lifting of an arms embargo imposed following its 2019 incursion into northern Syria to combat Kurdish militants. Sweden last month said it would lift the embargo, a step seen as aiming to secure Ankara’s approval.
Kristersson is scheduled to hold talks with Erdogan at the Turkish presidential palace complex following an official welcoming ceremony.
Ahead of his visit, Kristersson wrote on Facebook on Monday that “we will do significantly more in Sweden through new legislation that provides completely new opportunities to stop participation in terrorist organizations.”
Sweden would also support NATO’s counter-terrorism fund to support the alliance’s ability to fight terrorism, Kristersson wrote.
Sweden's new center-right government is taking a harder line not just toward the PKK but also toward the Syrian Kurdish militia group YPG and their political branch, PYD. Turkey regards the YPG as the Syrian arm of the PKK
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström in an interview with Swedish Radio over the weekend said there were close links between the PKK and the YPG/PYG and that Sweden would therefore “keep a distance” from Syrian groups in order not to harm relations with Turkey.
His comments were criticized by members of the previous Social Democratic government, including former Justice Minister Morgan Johansson who called the new government’s handling of the NATO accession process “worrying and acquiescent.”
Kurds in Sweden were also critical. Kurdo Baksi, a Kurdish writer and commentator who has lived in Sweden for decades, called the comments disrespectful, given the sacrifices made by Syrian Kurds in fighting the Islamic State group.
All 30 NATO member countries must officially ratify the accession protocol for Finland and Sweden to join the alliance. Only the parliaments of Turkey and Hungary have yet to do so.
Last week, the NATO Secretary-General traveled to Turkey and urged the country to set aside its reservations over Finland and Sweden, insisting that the Nordic neighbors had done enough to satisfy Ankara’s concerns.
Turkish officials have said the two countries would join only after Turkey’s demands, agreed in a joint memorandum, are fulfilled. The 10-article memorandum was unveiled ahead of a NATO summit in June after Turkey had threatened for weeks to veto Sweden and Finland’s applications.
“Both countries have taken a number of steps, but it is difficult to say that they have fulfilled their commitments at this stage,” the state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as saying late on Monday.
Turkish, Swedish and Finnish officials would hold a meeting in Sweden soon to review “what has been done (and) what still needs to be done,” the minister said. He described Kristersson's visit as “critical” in terms of Sweden taking “concrete steps” to meet Turkey's demands.
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Karl Ritter in Stockholm and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.
