Sweden accused Turkey of demanding impossible measures to enter NATO: “They want things that we cannot and do not want to give them”

Swedish Prime Minister ulf kristerssondeclared this Sunday that the Turkish government is imposing a series of demands on his country to join NATO that Sweden cannot and does not want to comply with.

“They want things that we cannot and do not want to give them and now the decision falls on the Turks,” declared the prime minister during the People and Defense conference held in Stockholm and reported by the newspaper ‘Aftonbladet’.

They have also attended the conference NATO Secretary General Jens StoltenbergY Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavistoanother country that has also requested entry into NATO to protect itself from the threat of Russia and that, like Sweden, is left at the expense of Turkey lifting its veto.

Ankara refuses to admit these two countries to the Atlantic Alliance until they hand over all the individuals accused of belonging to Kurdish organizations declared by the Turkish government as terrorist groups, such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Likewise, Turkey also calls for the opening of the bilateral arms trade.

Before the conference, the Finnish foreign minister assured that Finland will wait for Turkey and Sweden to settle their differences. “We are not in such a hurry to join NATO as to not wait for Sweden to receive the go-ahead,” Haavisto said in statements collected by the same medium.

in 2022 Sweden and Finland broke with decades of military non-alignment and requested to join the US-led defense alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Turkey and Hungary are the only NATO members that have not yet ratified their Nordic neighbours’ requests.

If Sweden joins, its military’s submarine and air defense prowess would bolster NATO’s ability to counter hostile Russian activity in the Baltic Sea and Arctic.

there would also be political benefits. It is true that previous rounds of expansion, particularly to less-developed democracies in southeastern Europe, have depleted the alliance’s resources and forced it to do business with illiberal governments. But adding Finland and Sweden, both prosperous democracies, would only bolster NATO’s credibility as a champion of liberal values. Too it would help spread the long-term costs of maintaining European security, allowing the US to devote more attention to the Pacific. Despite Putin’s repeated threats, history shows that a bigger alliance provides a greater – not less – deterrent against Russian aggression in Europe.

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