"President Erdogan has agreed to forward the Accession Protocol for Sweden to the Grand National Assembly as soon as possible and work closely with the assembly to ensure ratification," Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after the deal was struck. "This is a historic step which makes all Nato allies stronger and safer."
Glad to announce that after the meeting I hosted with @RTErdogan & @SwedishPM, President Erdogan has agreed to forward #Sweden's accession protocol to the Grand National Assembly ASAP & ensure ratification. This is an historic step which makes all #NATO Allies stronger & safer. pic.twitter.com/D7OeR5Vgba — Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) July 10, 2023
At the press conference, Sweden's prime minister Ulf Kristersson, said it had been "a long day in a long journey towards Swedish membership".
"I am extremely happy," he said. "This is a good day for Sweden".
In a separate joint statement, Sweden repeated its commitments to help Turkey in its "fight against terrorism" making an addition pledge to support Turkey's in its long-stalled efforts to join the EU.
"Sweden will actively support efforts to reinvigorate Turkiye's EU accession process, including modernisation of the EU-Turkiye Customs Union and
In return, Turkey said it "will transmit the Accession Protocol for Sweden to the Grand National Assembly, and work closely with the Assembly to ensure ratification."
Turkey has been holding up Sweden's application to join the Atlantic alliance, accusing Stockholm of harbouring Kurdish activists Ankara regards as
And on Monday, Erdogan upped the stakes further, demanding that the European Union revive Turkey's stalled EU membership bid as a precondition for Sweden joining Nato.
Shortly before the deal was announced Erdogan interrupted his talks with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to hold talks with Charles Michel, the President of the EU Council.
Michel hailed a "good meeting", adding that they had "explored opportunities ahead to bring EU-Turkey cooperation back to the forefront and re-energise our relations".
Turkey has been a formal candidate to join the European Union since 2005, and an aspirant since long before that, but talks have long been stalled with little sign of life.
US President Joe Biden welcomed the agreement.
"I stand ready to work with President Erdogan and Turkey on enhancing defence and deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic area," he said in a statement, adding: "I look forward to welcoming Prime Minister Kristersson and Sweden as our 32nd NATO ally."
"The path for Turkey's ratification of Sweden's membership of Nato is finally clear," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote on Twitter, hailing the "good news from Vilnius".
Sachs-2021 on July 10th, 2023 at 21:56 UTC »
I wonder what Sweden had to give up, especially concerning those dissidents Erdoğan hates so much within Sweden.
Hidden-Syndicate on July 10th, 2023 at 20:24 UTC »
The man is an enigma. Literally hours after coming out and demanding Turkey be fast tracked (let us ignore the democratic and rule of law requirements) into the EU, he approves what looked like a DOA Swedish application.
I can only assume that the US pretty much guaranteed the F-16, maybe even reversion of the S-400 sanctions. This has been a whirlwind weekend for Turkey. Idk what to think right now. This will take some time to figure out all the complexities that went into this.
EqualContact on July 10th, 2023 at 20:15 UTC »
Hungary should follow suit shortly, Orban already made it clear he isn’t going to hold out alone.
This completes the Russian geopolitical failure in the Baltic region. After decades of successful Soviet policy keeping Finland and Sweden out of NATO, the invasion of Ukraine has succeeded in dramatically increasing the land border that Russia has against NATO, making the Baltic a NATO lake, and in reenforcing the former Soviet Baltic states, which were likely the weakest part of NATO’s defensive commitment. They are now more vulnerable than ever to being blockaded during a Russia-NATO war, and St. Petersburg is more exposed than it has been since 1940, and there are numerous other strategic vulnerabilities that have been made more likely now.
I wonder to what extent the Kremlin knew this would happen. Even had Putin succeeded in a decapitation strike against Ukraine, this was likely always going to be the cost of military aggression, but I’m not sure if he saw it that way. I think Russia fundamentally failed to understand the West and the limits of its patience when it invaded Ukraine, and did not anticipate the severity of the consequences of their actions.