The View From Finland: With Or Without NATO, You Need To Be Able To Defend Your Own CountryĮarlier the same day, NATO officials from various member states agreed on new defense plans for the military alliance, explaining how the bloc would defend itself in the case of an attack.įor most alliance members, the likely adversary would be Russia, but Turkey insisted - and NATO agreed - that the alliance would also consider threats from terrorism. However, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson did make clear in the press conference after the negotiations that Sweden didn't have to make any new pledges when it comes to handing over more people that Turkey considers to be terrorists. Secondly, during the meeting in Vilnius it was also agreed that the NATO secretary-general will create a new position within NATO structures - a special coordinator for counterterrorism.
#Radia swedish full#
The two countries will meet annually at the ministerial level and, according to a joint statement agreed after the meeting in Vilnius, Sweden will present a road map at the first ministerial meeting, likely to take place in the fall, "as the basis of its continued fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations towards the full implementation of all elements of the Trilateral Memorandum." Firstly, Sweden and Turkey will continue to work together to fight terrorism. Taliban Bans Activities Of Swedish Organizations In Afghanistan Following Koran Burningīut, as in Madrid a year earlier, a day before the July 11-12 summit in the Lithuanian capital was about to start and after plenty of doom and gloom about the likelihood of a breakthrough, Stoltenberg again announced a major deal - this time a bilateral security "compact," or agreement, between Sweden and Turkey that will most likely allow the former to become NATO's 32nd member.Įssentially the deal covers two things.
But Sweden was stuck, largely due to Turkey's objections to regular Swedish demonstrations, where emigre Kurds protested against Erdogan's government, along with some incidents of the Koran being burned that incensed both Turkey and large parts of the Muslim world.
#Radia swedish update#
But then, a day before the gathering in the Spanish capital, the three countries agreed on a trilateral memorandum, with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg serving as an arbiter, in which Sweden and Finland pledged to lift an arms embargo against Turkey, update their counterterrorism legislation, and extradite individuals (mostly Kurds) that Turkey deems to be engaging in terrorist activities.įinland fulfilled its part of the bargain and promptly joined NATO in early April. Back then, the noises coming out of Ankara were very negative about the chances of Turkey allowing Sweden and Finland to join. In many ways, there was a sense of déjà vu after what happened at the Madrid summit.
So, what does the deal struck between Turkey and Sweden mean, and what further roadblocks could lie ahead? Then in June 2022, at a summit in Madrid, NATO invited both countries to join, conditional on the ratification of every member state. VILNIUS - On July 10, on the eve of the NATO summit in Vilnius, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signaled that Ankara was ready to ratify Sweden's NATO accession protocol, potentially putting an end to a saga that has dragged on for over a year.įinland and Sweden, which were previously nonaligned militarily, applied for membership of the alliance in May 2022 following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February.
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