2023-07-10 20:08:06
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to support Sweden’s membership in NATO, which he has been blocking for more than a year, Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced on Monday, welcoming ” a historic day.
• Read also: No link between Turkey’s EU candidacy and Sweden’s NATO membership, according to Scholz
“I am happy to announce that President Erdogan has agreed to forward Sweden’s accession protocol” to the Turkish Parliament “as soon as possible and to work with the assembly to ensure ratification,” the official said, to following a meeting with the Turkish leader and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, on the eve of a NATO summit in Vilnius.
“Finalizing Sweden’s membership in NATO is a historic step that benefits the security of all NATO allies at this critical time. It makes us all stronger and safer,” Jens Stoltenberg said at a press conference.
Hours earlier, the Turkish leader had tied his support for Sweden’s NATO bid to his country’s EU accession talks.
Mr. Erdogan had talks with European Council President Charles Michel in the evening, during which both agreed to “revitalize” relations between Turkey and the EU, according to the European leader.
Mr Stoltenberg also indicated that Sweden had agreed “as a member of the EU, to actively support efforts to reinvigorate Turkey’s EU accession process and to contribute to the modernization of EU-Turkey customs union agreement and visa liberalisation’.
Turkey, still officially a candidate, filed its candidacy in 1987 for the European Economic Community and in 1999 for the European Union, but the EU membership negotiations started in 2005 have been stalled for several years.
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