By Janet Ekstract
ISTANBUL NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and U.S. officials want to see Sweden accepted into NATO prior to the NATO Summit in Vilnius on July 11-12. Analysts predict Sweden’s bid hinges on whether Turkish President Erdogan gets what he wants – the U.S. sale of F-16s to Turkiye. On Wednesday, delegations from Finland, Sweden, Turkiye and NATO meet in Ankara to review their tripartite memorandum, signed last June at the Madrid Summit. The memorandum laid out specific goals relating to unilaterally combating terrorism domestically and moving to pass tougher laws in Sweden and Finland against the PKK, a known terrorist organization. Sweden already has a new terrorism law and said that its completed all its obligations under the memorandum. Sweden also insists that it’s just as keen on stamping out terrorists in its own country as Turkiye is, including organized crime.The Turkish presidential administration issued a statement about the meeting: ‘’The fourth meeting of the Permanent Joint Mechanism, established in accordance with the tripartite agreement, will be hosted by Ambassador Akıf Cağatay Kılıç, Chief Advisor to the President of the Republic at the Presidential Complex on Wednesday, June 14, 2023 at 9:00 a.m.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Sweden’s government announced a formal decision to extradite a man who said he’s a supporter of the Kurdish PKK group. Last week, a prosecutor in Stockholm brought the first-ever charges related to fundraising for the PKK. Finland became a NATO member in April 2023 after Turkish President Erdogan expressed his satisfaction that Finland had fulfilled criteria laid out in the tripartite agreement. Though former foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the ‘’door is open’’ for Sweden in terms of its NATO bid – Turkish officials reiterated that Sweden hadn’t done enough to prove its serious intentions. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and newly appointed Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, in a recent call, discussed Sweden’s bid and the F-16 sale. NATO allies have urged Turkiye to approve Sweden’s membership prior to the summit. Sweden’s membership would give NATO full control of the Baltic Sea as well as giving NATO an advantage in the Artic region. As a formal invitee to the upcoming summit, Sweden has a right to join all NATO meetings and analysts say that having Sweden onboard will streamline defense planning as well as the advantage of Sweden’s excellent navy, combat aircraft, military assets and make it easier to maneuver in the region in the event of a larger-scale war.
