SWEDEN SAYS IT CANNOT FULFIL TURKEY’S DEMANDS FOR NATO APPLICATION WHILE ANKARA INSISTS IT SHOULD AS MOSCOW MOVES WEAPONS IN POSITION UP NORTH TO ATTACK.
Prime Minister of Sweden Ulf Kristersson says Turkey is asking for too much, but he is confident Ankara will approve its bid for NATO.
But Turckey has insisted that without meeting “ALL” of its demands it won’t sign the accession for both Sweden and Finiland’s bid to join NATO.
Sweden said it is confident that Turkey will approve its application to join the NATO military alliance, but it will not meet all the conditions that Ankara has set for its support, Sweden’s prime minister has said.
“Turkey both confirms that we have done what we said we would do, but they also say that they want things that we cannot or do not want to give them,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Sunday during a security conference.
Turkey demands Sweden take concrete steps prior to NATO approval.
Finland and Sweden signed a three-way agreement with Turkey in 2022 aimed at overcoming Ankara’s objections to their membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The two Nordic countries applied to join the military alliance in May 2022 as a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. But Turkey has shared its objections to their membership and accused the countries of harbouring Kurdish rebels.
Turkey has insisted that there will be no compromise to its demands they should be met else it won’t sign their NATO membership.
It refused to approve their membership until both countries take the requested steps, including joining Turkey to fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated as a “terrorist” group by the United States and the European Union.
Sweden has robust ties with the Kurdish diaspora, which has been a clashing point between the countries. Turkey is also requesting the extradition of people that Turkey regards as “terrorists”.
In December, Sweden’s Supreme Court blocked the extradition of exiled Turkish journalist Bulent Kenes, which is a key demand by Ankara to ratify Stockholm’s NATO membership. Turkey has accused Kenes of being involved in a 2016 attempt to topple President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a coup.
Turkey is also seeking to extradite 33 alleged Kurdish fighters and coup plot suspects from Sweden and Finland.
In late December, Turkey praised Sweden for responding to its security concerns but stressed more was needed to win Ankara’s full backing for Stockholm’s stalled NATO membership bid.
Currently, only Hungary and Turkey among the 30 NATO member states have not yet approved the applications of both countries.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said parliament will soon approve both Finland’s and Sweden’s accession bids, leaving Turkey as the only hurdle to overcome.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said he expects Sweden and Finland to join the alliance as early as this year, admitting that the decision depends on the Turkish and Hungarian parliaments.
“I expect that accession will take place in 2023, but I will not guarantee the exact date, because it is of course a sovereign decision of the Turkish and Hungarian parliaments, which have not yet ratified the agreement,” Stoltenberg said.
Finland and Sweden “are clearly committed to long-term cooperation with Turkey” and “the time has come to finalise the accession process and to ratify the accession protocol”, he added.
80% votes Hungarian people oppose the joining of Sweden and Finland into NATO for fear of angering Russia which they heavily depend on for oil and gas. Hungary is the only country in EU block that refused to recognise the war in Ukraine as an invasion by Russia, it also refused to offer military support to Ukraine or allow any weapons to transit through its country to Ukraine as well as refused to impose any sanctions on Russia. Many politicians and senior government officials in Hungary calls Zelenskyy ‘a big problem’ . Hungary agreed to keep ties with Moscow that included buying oil and gas in Russian rubble as requested by Putin.
However on joining the military of Finland and Sweden the Hungarian parliament is so divided with many lawmakers having a tough time to assemble the required numbers because the country view Russia as an important partner in economic affairs and do not want to piss Putin off to be labelled as an “unfriendly country”. In December Hungary also refused to obey EU’s new price cap on Russian oil saying the country depends so much on Moscow it does not want to go against its interests.
On another hand Moscow has moved its war machines upwards North in readiness to attack both Sweden and Finland should NATO dare install any weapons in the two countries.
Russian deadly submarines and newly armed ship destroyers with Zircon missiles and nuclear warheads have been stationed in the North Arctic in response to NATO’s moves in Sweden and Finland.
Russian President Vladmir Putin said he can not take the extreme provocations anymore he will act militarily should NATO dare station any of the weapons in Helsinki and Stockholm.
Putin said he has no objection over Sweden and Finland joining NATO but the countries will never be allowed to host cutting edge weapons near to its boarders. But its not clear how a country can be a NATO member without hosting the Alliance weapons on its soils.
Sweden and Finland said they don’t feel safe at all because of what is happening in Ukraine it could happen to them too hence seeking NATO membership for protection but that they don’t understand why they would just join without stationing NATO weapons there. Pentagon also said it has no plans to send cutting edge weapons or Nuclear weapons to Sweden and Finland even after they join because of security concerns and to avoid confrontation with Russia.
The Kremlin leader said its not fair what America and its allies are doing to Russia that if they want problems with Moscow they should dare him.
Russia says the joining of Sweden and NATO is aimed at blocking Russia’s baltic sea access with NATO weapons as its the only route it moves to access its exclave territory ‘Kaliningrad’. Russian ships moves from Kaliningrad to St Petersburg via baltic sea.