“Sweden fulfilled its obligations”: NATO head again calls on Erdogan to lift the veto

The head of NATO is losing patience. Jens Stoltenberg urged Turkey on Sunday to withdraw its objections to Sweden, which has “fulfilled its obligations”, and to end its membership in the Alliance “as soon as possible”.

Turkey has been blocking Sweden’s entry into the Atlantic Alliance for thirteen months now, accusing it of being lenient towards the Kurdish militants it deploys on its territory. But it is “time” for the head of NATO to reaffirm that membership before the alliance’s summit in Vilnius on 11 and 12 July.

To move forward, he announced the establishment of a “permanent mechanism” between NATO and Turkey with the next meeting in the week of 12 June. “Sweden’s membership in NATO will strengthen its security, but it will also make Turkey stronger,” he insisted, adding that he “intends to complete Sweden’s entry as soon as possible.”

Demonstration against NATO in Stockholm.

At the same time, a demonstration was authorized in Stockholm on Sunday against Erdogan and against this membership, initiated by the Alliance Against NATO, which, among other things, includes the Rojava Committee, a support group for Kurdish armed groups in Syria.

For Jens Stoltenberg, “freedom of assembly is at the heart of the democratic values ​​of our societies,” but “the demonstrators want to prevent Sweden from joining NATO: we must not let them win,” he said, he assures. He was invited to Ankara on Saturday for the inauguration ceremony of President Erdogan, who was re-elected on May 28.

Turkey remains the only one of 31 NATO members with Hungary that has yet to ratify the expansion after Finland gave the green light. However, Stockholm has complied with Ankara’s key demand: the Swedish parliament passed a new law banning activities linked to extremist groups, strengthening anti-terrorism legislation that came into force last week.

On this occasion, the head of Swedish diplomacy noted that his country had fulfilled “all the conditions” that would allow the last objections to be immediately removed. “The time has come for Turkey and Hungary to start ratifying Sweden’s NATO membership,” said Tobias Billström.