German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday called for increased aid from the Atlantic Alliance countries to Ukraine and urged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO.
“I strongly believe that, in addition to Finland, Sweden should also sit at the summit table as a new ally. I urge the re-elected Turkish President Erdogan to lead the process, as we all decided last year,” Scholz said in German. Federal Parliament (Bundestag) referring to the next summit of the Atlantic Alliance.
The German chancellor told the deputies of the Lower House of the German Parliament that the NATO Summit, which will take place in Vilnius in July, should also reinforce the support of the allies for the Kiev government.
“The Ukrainian government itself has stated that it is not about Ukraine joining NATO while Russia is fighting a war (…). That is why I propose that we focus at the Vilnius Summit on what is an absolute priority, namely, to strengthen Ukraine’s combat capability,” Olfaf Scholz said.
The NATO Summit will take place in Lithuania on July 11-12.
Turkey has been blocking Sweden’s entry into NATO because it believes that Stockholm protects refugees of Kurdish origin that Ankara considers “terrorists”.
Source: TSF
