Turkey will support Sweden's entry into NATO

Turkey will support Sweden's entry into NATO

A few hours after the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, one of the key issues at the center of the agenda of the leaders of the Atlantic Alliance is unblocked. In fact, late yesterday evening, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, gave the green light for Sweden to join NATO, thus following Finland's path and leaving behind three decades of neutrality. The green light came after a meeting lasting more than two hours with the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, and the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg. A meeting interrupted by the face-to-face meeting between Erdogan and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel. The protocol for the ratification of Sweden's entry will be submitted to the Turkish Parliament "in a short time", Ankara sources said.

Turkey, in exchange, gets the guarantee of a «invigoration» of the EU accession process, an entry on which Erdogan will have "active support" from Stockholm. Which is also committed to the expansion of the Customs Union to Turkey and to the liberalization of visas. Sweden then gave ample guarantees that no form of support will be provided to the Kurdish separatists of the PKK and YPG. «This is a historic day, because we have a clear commitment from Turkey to send the ratification documents for Sweden's membership in NATO», he explained late in the evening Stoltenberg.

Another chapter, however, concerns the accession of Ukraine.

It was 2008 when at the Bucharest summit NATO opened its doors to Kiev for the first time, only to then backtrack. Under pressure from Merkel's Germany and Sarkozy's France, the Alliance concluded that letting Ukraine in would damage relations between the West and Russia more than it would bring benefits.

Today and tomorrow in Vilnius the cards will be played face up, and possible discrepancies will come to light regarding the entry of Kiev, but also on the sending of the controversial cluster munitions. NATO will welcome Finland and applaud the now imminent entry of Sweden, hoping not to split over Kiev. The position of the United States is well known, underlined in the interview with CNN by Biden: "Kiev is not ready to join NATO, it must meet other requirements." The occupant of the White House (who landed in Vilnius in the evening) promises, together with the other 30 member countries, to continue to provide security and weapons to Zelensky (present at the summit). The topic was also discussed in yesterday's bilateral meeting in Downing Street with British Prime Minister Sunak.
On the eve of the summit, Poland and the Baltic States believe it is appropriate to speed up Ukraine's accession operations. In the joint note, the presidents of the Parliaments ask that NATO guarantee Ukraine all the assistance necessary to strengthen its defense potential until it restores territorial integrity according to the borders recognized in 1991. Our minister's statement is very balanced of Foreign Affairs Tajani offering «the birth of a NATO-Ukraine Council to prepare the ground for Kiev's future membership, which will necessarily take place after the war».

Position espoused by Erdogan, who sees a just and lasting peace as the key to facilitating entry. Stoltenberg explains that consultations on the removal of the MAP, the path that establishes political, military and economic objectives that candidates must achieve before joining NATO, are underway. The Foreign Minister of Kiev answers him kuleba, urging the leaders present in Vilnius "to clarify and shorten the path". Russia, through the Kremlin spokesperson Peskov, threat "very negative consequences and a firm reaction" if Kiev's request were to be accepted.