NATO States Hail Turkey’s Delayed Support for Swedish Membership

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L), Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (R) and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (C) ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania on Monday. Photo: EPA-EFE/Henrik Montgomery

"I stand ready to work with President Erdogan and Turkey on enhancing defence and deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic area. I look forward to welcoming [Swedish] Prime Minister [Ulf] Kristersson and Sweden as our 32nd NATO ally," the White House said in a statement.

"At 32, we're all safer together," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote on Twitter, while British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also said that Sweden joining would "make us all safer".

Stoltenberg said that Erdogan's decision to support Sweden's membership was an historic step which makes all NATO allies stronger

"President Erdogan has agreed to forward Sweden's accession protocol to the [Turkish] Grand National Assembly as soon as possible and ensure ratification," Stoltenberg said.

Turkey had blocked Sweden's membership bid over its claims that Stockholm has been hosting and supporting Kurdish groups that Turkey designates as terrorist organisations.

Sweden changed legislation and promised action to accommodate Turkey's demands but Erdogan refused to drop his objections, seeking further concessions, until his apparent about-turn on Monday.

However, no timeline has been announced for the Turkish parliament's ratification of Sweden's NATO membership protocol.

The agreed conditions for President Erdogan lifting his veto are also unknown.

Erdogan was previously asking the US to sell him new F-16 jet fighters and the Turkish leader this week unexpectedly asked Brussels to revive Ankara's EU membership process, which has been...