2023-07-11 09:45:54
Washington – Minutes following NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed Turkey’s agreement to support Sweden’s attempt to join the military alliance, US President Joe Biden issued a statement welcoming the position of his Turkish counterpart Recep Erdogan.
“I welcome the statement from Turkey, Sweden and the Secretary General of NATO this evening, including President Erdogan’s commitment to transmit Sweden’s accession protocol to Turkey’s Grand National Assembly (parliament) for speedy ratification,” Biden said. “I stand ready to work with President Erdogan and Turkey on strengthening defense.” and deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic region.
Washington did not show any sense of surprise at the change in the Turkish decision, at a time when it expressed its happiness. It is remarkable what Biden said in an interview with CNN last Sunday regarding his optimism that Sweden will join NATO soon, in A time when most experts and observers expressed pessimism regarding the success of the NATO summit due to Turkey’s obstruction of the Swedish accession file.
“I recently met the Swedish prime minister here, and Sweden has the same values that we have in NATO. They are a small nation, but they have the ability to stand up for themselves. They know how to fight, and I think they should be a member of NATO,” Biden said. The reason for the delay is Turkey.
He continued, “Turkey is looking for modernization of (F-16) aircraft, and Mitsotakis is looking in Greece (Greek Prime Minister) also for some help. So what I’m trying to get quite frankly is coordination so that we strengthen NATO in terms of the military capacity of both Greece and Turkey, and allow Sweden By joining. I’m optimistic, in fact I’m optimistic.”
Presidents Biden and Erdogan communicated by phone on Sunday evening, and in a brief description of the call, the White House said that Biden told Erdogan “his desire to welcome Sweden to NATO as soon as possible.”
In an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, Stephen Cook, an international affairs expert at the American Council on Foreign Relations, expressed his belief that “Biden was completely confident before his phone call with Erdogan, but he was less confident following the call.”
Erdogan said – during a phone call with Biden – “We want the leading countries of the European Union and the leaders of the Union to give a clear and strong message regarding supporting Turkey’s membership during the upcoming NATO summit.”
For more: pic.twitter.com/EP692wYJU2
– Aljazeera.net • Al Jazeera Net (@AJArabicnet) July 10, 2023
Türkiye’s accession to the European Union
After Turkey announced its desire to link the issue of Sweden’s membership in NATO to its request for membership in the European Union, the Office of the Spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House confirmed that the issue of Turkey’s accession to the European Union concerns both parties, stressing that our current focus is Sweden, which is ready to join NATO.
In turn, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, “The United States has supported Turkey’s aspirations to join the European Union for years and we continue to support it,” adding, “But we do not see that this should be an obstacle to Sweden’s accession to NATO.”
“Bloomberg” agency quoted a Turkish official as saying that EU officials agreed to accelerate Ankara’s membership negotiations in the European bloc, and that the negotiations include Turkey’s accession to the customs union and allowing its citizens to travel without a visa.
Erdogan had linked Sweden’s membership in NATO to his country’s desire to join the European Union, and said, “First, let us pave the way for Turkey in the European Union, then let us pave the way for Sweden, just as we paved the way for Finland.”
Erdogan also emphasized that “Turkey has been waiting at the gates of the European Union for more than 50 years now,” and that “almost all NATO member states are European member states.” President Erdogan’s request disturbed the European side, but it received remarkable understanding in Washington.
Erdogan linked these two files on the eve of a NATO summit to be hosted in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, during which NATO leaders wish to appear unified in confronting the Russian war on Ukraine.
In turn, Germany was quick to reject the Turkish condition, stressing that there is no connection between these two issues.
“They should not be considered as two related issues,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said during a press conference in Berlin, stressing that “nothing prevents Sweden from joining NATO, which the Turkish president has been blocking for months.”
But Scholz saw in Erdogan’s remarks “a positive message that granting the green light to Sweden’s membership is possible in the near future.”
Turkey applied to join the European Union in 1987, but there has been little progress since 2016, when the European Parliament voted to suspend accession talks over its criticism of the Turkish government’s sweeping crackdown on those involved in the failed military coup.
In this context, Stephen Cook noted that “there is always a lot of drama before the NATO summit, but few expected President Erdogan to raise the issue of his country’s accession to the European Union.”
Cook added, “I strongly suspect that he overstated his position, and once it became clear that by linking Turkey’s membership in the European Union to Sweden’s attempt to join NATO, he was endangering Turkey’s relations with NATO, the European Union and the United States,” according to his description.
Türkiye’s importance is increasing
The crisis began last year, when Sweden applied to join NATO, which requires all NATO countries to agree to it, a rule that gave President Erdogan enormous leverage to demand European concessions.
In recent months, Sweden has made efforts to meet Turkey’s demands, amend its constitution, pass new anti-terror legislation, and agree to extradite several Turks accused of crimes in Turkey, but Swedish courts have blocked other extraditions.
Hungary remains the only other NATO member that has not yet agreed to Sweden’s request, but Hungarian officials said that if Turkey’s position changed they would not block the process. Finland applied at the same time as Sweden, but overcame Turkey’s initial objections and joined the coalition last April.
Since the start of the Russian war on Ukraine last year, Turkey’s “geo-strategic” importance to NATO and European security has increased. Turkey plays a major role in mediating and communicating between Moscow and Kiev, although it is a member of NATO. This did not hinder Turkey’s establishment of strong relations with Russia, which allowed it to mediate to reach an agreement to export Ukrainian grain.
Turkey has the second largest army participating in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) following the US army, and is considered one of the dominant US allies in the Middle East, Southeast Europe and Central Asia.
After a significant deterioration in the relations of the two countries once morest the backdrop of the United States excluding Turkey from the Federation of Advanced Fighter Manufacturers “F-35” due to Ankara’s purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system, the Biden administration described the events of 1915 – during the Ottoman Empire – as a genocide of the Armenians. Several meetings between US President Joe Biden and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in addition to many talks, contributed to the return of the two countries’ relations to their normal course.
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