The Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, greeted this Monday the “good morning” and a “big step” for his country, after the ‘green light’ given by the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for Sweden’s entry into NATO .
“We are taking a big step towards the formal ratification of Sweden’s accession to NATO. It is a good day for Sweden”, Ulf Kristersson stressed at a press conference in Vilnius, where a summit of the Atlantic Alliance is being held.
Ulf Kristersson was still “very happy” with the deal announced by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan will send Sweden’s accession protocol to NATO as soon as possible, so that it can be ratified by parliament, the Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance announced today.
The announcement was made by Jens Stoltenberg, at a press conference at the end of a meeting between the President of Turkey and the Prime Minister of Sweden, in Vilnius, Lithuania, one day before the start of the Atlantic Alliance summit: “I feel that I I am honored to be able to announce that President Erdogan has decided to send Sweden’s accession protocol to the Turkish parliament for ratification.”
“It’s a historic day, it’s a true commitment,” said the secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), unsure when it will be approved for Turkish ratification, the main obstacle to Swedish adherence, but assuring that “it will be as fast as possible”.
The Turkish parliament will now have to deliberate on Sweden’s accession protocol and ratify it for the process to be finalized.
Like Turkey, the Hungarian parliament has not yet done so, but Jens Stoltenberg has ruled out that this will not happen now that Ankara is one step away from validating Stockholm’s accession.
The general secretary of the political-military alliance, of which Portugal is the founding country, added that Sweden’s accession is especially important “at this critical moment” that the world is experiencing due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine: “It will make us stronger “.
Ankara accused Stockholm of giving asylum to elements of the PKK, which it considers a terrorist organization, by providing them with a base to coordinate operations on Turkish soil.
The PKK is accused of attempting to overthrow Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016 and promoting an insurgent movement in the country that has already claimed numerous casualties.
Negotiations between the two countries have lasted for months but have suffered several setbacks, most recently in late June when a man burned a copy of the Koran outside a mosque in Stockholm.
Sweden, a country that has criticized in the past the disrespect of the Turkish State for human rights, agreed to part of Ankara’s requests reinforcing the anti-terrorist laws, which entered into force on June 1, and also agreed to the extradition of some dissidents to Turkey. .
Source: TSF
