Turkey asking too much over Nato application, says Sweden

Turkey asking too much over Nato application, says Sweden

One sticking point has been extraditions of people Turkey regards as terrorists.

Swedish premier Ulf Kristersson (centre) with Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg and Swedish politician Magdalena Andersson. (AP pic)
STOCKHOLM:
Sweden is confident Turkey will approve its application to join the Nato military alliance, but cannot fulfil all the conditions Ankara has set for its support, Sweden’s prime minister said Sunday.

“Turkey both confirms that we have done what we said we would do, but they also say that they want things that we cannot or do not want to give them,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a defence think-tank conference in Sweden.

Finland and Sweden signed a three-way agreement with Turkey in 2022 aimed at overcoming Ankara’s objections to their membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato).

They applied in May to join Nato in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but Turkey objected and accused the countries of harbouring militants, including from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

One sticking point has been extraditions of people Turkey regards as terrorists.

Ankara expressed disappointment with a decision late last year from Sweden’s top court to stop a request to extradite a journalist with alleged links to Islamic scholar Fetullah Gulen, blamed by Turkey for an attempted coup.

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