Sweden cannot accept some demands of Turkiye

Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Sunday said that the demands made by Turkiye, which has kept the NATO membership bids of Finland and Sweden blocked for months, cannot be accepted. “Turkiye has confirmed that we have done what we said we would do, but it also says that it wants things that we can’t, that we don’t want to, give it,” said PM Ulf Kristersson, while speaking at a security conference where NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg was also present.

“We are convinced that Turkiye will make a decision, we just don’t know when,” he stated, further saying that the decision will depend on Turkiye’s internal politics along with “Sweden’s capacity to show its seriousness”.

The military non-alignment of a decade was broken by Sweden and Finland as they applied for joining NATO, the US-led defence alliance after Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

However, their bids have been blocked by Turkiye which insists that both countries must join Ankara in its fight against banned Kurdish militants.

The major demands of Turkiye involve the participation of Sweden because the nation shares robust relations with the Kurdish diaspora.

The foreign minister of Finland is not in a hurry to join NATO and is ready to wait for Sweden to get the green light for joining the alliance.

“Finland is not in such a rush to join NATO that we can’t wait until Sweden gets the green light,” said Pekka Haavisto, while addressing reporters at Sunday’s conference.

Turkiye had praised Sweden in late December for giving a response to its security concerns but emphasised that more efforts were needed to win Ankara’s support for getting the stalled NATO membership bid sanctioned for Stockholm.