2023-07-11 00:55:47
Türkiye lifted its veto on Sweden’s NATO membership on Monday, as indicated by the secretary general of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, in a press conference.
The Norwegian politician made the announcement following holding a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Vilnius, a day before the NATO leaders’ summit in the capital. lithuanian
“This is a historic day because we have a clear commitment from Türkiye to send the ratification documents (for Sweden’s NATO membership) to the Grand National Assembly (Turkish parliament) and to work closely with the assembly to ensure ratification,” Stoltenberg stated.
He said he was “happy to announce” that as a result of today’s meeting in Vilnius, President Erdogan has agreed to send the Turkish Parliament the documents to ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO.
However, he stressed that he does not know the exact deadlines in which Turkey will ratify the Swedish entry into the Alliance.
Regarding Hungary, which has not yet ratified Sweden’s entry, he recalled that Budapest had assured in the past that it would not be the last country to give the green light to Stockholm’s entry.
Officially, Turkey had so far blocked Sweden’s accession to NATO, considering that the Nordic country has a too lax stance with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a guerrilla group that began an armed struggle once morest the Turkish state in 1984. and that it is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, Sweden, the European Union and the United States.
In the wake of those Turkish complaints, Sweden has reformed its anti-terrorism legislation, making it a criminal offense to merely belong to, or provide financial or other support for, a terrorist organization.
Sweden and Finland changed the position of neutrality that they had maintained for three decades and, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, they applied to join NATO.
Finland became the 31st member of the Alliance in April 2023.
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