The Secretary-General of NATO and the Swedish Prime Minister intend to visit Ankara soon, to discuss the file of Ankara’s ratification of the accession of Sweden and Finland to the alliance.
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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced that he will soon travel to Istanbul for talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan regarding Ankara’s ratification of Sweden and Finland’s accession to the alliance.
“Finland and Sweden are in close consultations with Turkey, and I will go to Ankara or Istanbul to meet with the Turkish president in the near future,” Stoltenberg said, without providing details regarding the date of the visit.
In turn, the new Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Christerson called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at a time when Sweden is trying to persuade Ankara to agree to its accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Christerson described the conversation via Twitter as “constructive”, indicating that he intends to visit Ankara “soon”, without giving further details regarding the date of this visit.
The Turkish president stressed that he “will be pleased to welcome Ulf Christerson to Ankara,” noting that he is “ready to advance bilateral relations with the Swedish government in all fields,” according to a statement issued by the Turkish presidency.
With NATO membership a priority for the right-wing government, Christerson announced last week that he was ready to visit Ankara.
Erdogan agreed to receive him, warning at the same time that The Turkish parliament will not ratify the accession of the two northern states (Finland and Sweden) as long as Ankara’s extradition requests are not respected.
“President Erdogan stressed that it is in the common interest to prevent terrorist organizations from taking hostage Sweden’s NATO membership and bilateral relations with Turkey,” a statement issued by Ankara said on Wednesday evening.
The Turkish president accuses Sweden and Finland of protecting Kurdish fighters in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara classifies as terrorists.
It is mentioned that Sweden and Finland have officially submitted Last May, two requests to join NATO were requested, in a step that represents a major expansion of the “NATO” alliance, and so far, 28 member states – out of 30 – in NATO have ratified membership, while they have not given Hungary and Turkey Their final approval following through their parliaments.
