OUR Sweden expressed regret today that he did not receive a green light from Turkey to ratify his accession to NATOunlike neighboring Finland, which now has a wide open road to joining the North Atlantic Alliance.
“This is an event that we did not want, but we were ready for it,” Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Bilström said at a press conference.
“Now it is important for Sweden to achieve the two remaining ratifications” from Turkey and Hungary and the country to protect its own security during the time it takes for those ratifications, he said.
More bad news for Sweden: Today, the Hungarian parliament has scheduled the ratification of Finland’s candidacy for March 27, but the decision on the Swedish case will be made “later”, said the leader of the ruling Fidesz faction.
The head of Swedish diplomacy declined to comment on the information, saying that he had no confirmation from Budapest.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg today welcomed Turkey’s readiness to ratify Finland’s membership in the Alliance and called for the ratification of Sweden’s membership “as soon as possible”.
Stockholm believes it is doing “everything” based on the memorandum of understanding it signed with Turkey last June at the Madrid summit, Billstrom said.
“We do what is written in this memorandum, we do not do less and we do not do more than what it contains,” said the Swedish Foreign Minister.
President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan ruled that “Sweden has not taken any positive action on the terrorist list”, citing “over 120” extradition requests filed by Ankara.
Stockholm regularly reiterates that the judiciary, not the government, has the final say on publications in Sweden.
“There will be answers that can be positive and others that can be negative from Turkey’s point of view, and this is how it will happen, very simply,” Billström confirmed today.
A date for Turkey’s ratification of Finland’s membership is not yet known, but Erdogan said he “hopes” it will happen before Turkey’s May 14 elections.
Source: APE-MPE-AFP-Reuters
Source: Kathimerini
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