By Janet Ekstract
ISTANBUL-Speaking to a press conference in Budapest, on his recent trip in Hungary, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavvusoglu speculated about the possibility of Sweden achieving its goal of joining NATO. Cavusoglu had a one-on-one meeting with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijarto on Tuesday to discuss bilateral relations as well as Sweden’s NATO membership. As Cavusoglu commented, “it’s unacceptable that Turkiye’s security concerns are not met.” The Turkish foreign minister did not totally close the door on the possibility of Sweden’s NATO membership. To that end, Cavusolgu commented: “According to the trilateral memorandum, these countries promised to curb terrorist activities. We can see that we don’t have a major problem with Finland compared to Sweden. There is a need for political willpower. We can see this willpower in the new Swedish government, yet there are no concrete steps yet.”
Cavusoglu reiterated that unless commitments agreed to in the tripartite agreement are met, that his government could not ratify a country’s NATO membership. He added: “This is entirely a security concern and about the fight against terrorism.” For his part, Szijarto condemned the book burning and said it’s “absolutely unacceptable as a Christian that the holy book of another religion is torched.” He also commented: “We will assess Sweden and Finland’s NATO memberships at our parliament in February.” He added: “I haven’t put any pressure on the Turkish side to act faster because that’s not my job. I leave this to Turkiye. I cannot provide the Turkish government with lessons.”
Meanwhile, in his closing remarks, Cavusoglu did leave some leeway for Sweden when he remarked: “If a decision is reached about the process, Mr. President Erdogan himself expressed that we would have a more positive outlook on Finland.” He also cited Finland as an example of a country that does not allow the burning of a holy book and considers it a hate crime, referring to the recent book burning that took place in Stockholm in front of the Turkish embassy. Cavusoglu concluded that if Sweden did end up keeping its commitments in the tripartite agreement that Turkiye would consider the options with the caveat “but as things stand, we can’t say yes.”
