ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg failed to achieve a breakthrough in talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday about Sweden’s membership in the military organization. Officials from both countries will meet in just over a week to try to bridge their differences.
NATO wants to wrap Sweden in its fold until US President Joe Biden and other allied leaders meet in Lithuania on July 11-12, but Turkey and Hungary have yet to agree to that move. All 31 member countries must ratify a candidate’s accession protocol before it can join the transatlantic alliance.
The Turkish government has accused Sweden of being too lenient towards terrorist organizations and security threats, including militant Kurdish groups and individuals linked to a 2016 coup attempt. Hungary has also delayed its approval, but the reasons for this have not been publicly disclosed.
“President Erdogan and I agreed today that the permanent joint mechanism should meet again in the week starting June 12. Membership will make Sweden more secure, but also make NATO and Turkey stronger,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Istanbul.
The permanent joint mechanism was set up to address Turkey’s concerns about Sweden and Finland, the latter becoming NATO’s 31st member in April.
“Sweden has fulfilled its commitments regarding membership,” said Stoltenberg. He pointed out that the country has amended its constitution, strengthened its anti-terrorist laws and lifted an arms embargo on Turkey since Turkey applied to join NATO just over a year ago.
Sweden and Finland feared being targeted by Moscow after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, and abandoned their traditional position of military non-alignment to seek protection under NATO’s security umbrella.
While Stoltenberg was holding talks in Istanbul, hundreds of people, including dozens of pro-Kurdish demonstrators, gathered in Stockholm to demonstrate against Sweden’s planned NATO membership. Up to 500 people took part in the action entitled “No to NATO – no Erdogan laws in Sweden”.
They gathered under the banner of the “Alliance Against NATO,” an umbrella for a mix of Kurdish organizations, left-wing groups, anarchists, youth and climate activists, and people opposed to Sweden’s new anti-terror laws that came into force on June 1 as well as those who demand free media.
In January, a protest in Stockholm that burned a copy of the Koran brought Sweden’s NATO accession talks to a halt after Erdogan suspended the meetings. The incident sparked anti-Swede demonstrations across the Muslim world.
“We know that Erdogan is watching this and … he has been very angry about these things in the past, so we will most likely get the same reaction from him and delay Sweden’s NATO entry even further,” said Tomas, spokesman for Alliance Against NATO said Pettersson.
Stoltenberg apparently hinted that the protests may have arisen during his talks.
“I understand that in Sweden it is difficult to see anti-Turkey and anti-NATO demonstrations,” Stoltenberg said. “But let me be clear: freedom of assembly and freedom of expression are core values of our democratic societies. These rights must be protected and upheld.”
He also said it was important “to remember why these demonstrations are happening.” The organizers want to stop Sweden from joining NATO. They want to block Sweden’s counter-terrorism cooperation with Turkey and weaken NATO. We shouldn’t let them succeed.”