Türkiye, Sweden to advance security talks at key meeting

Türkiye and Sweden will hold a key meeting to advance their security cooperation, especially against PKK's presence and activities on the latter's soil, in line with a bilateral agreement that allowed the Swedish admission into NATO.

The meeting, dubbed the Security Compact, will be held under the leadership of two countries' foreign ministers, Hakan Fidan and Maria Malmer Stenergard on Sept. 18 in the capital Ankara, according to diplomatic sources.

Stenergard, who has recently been appointed as the Swedish top diplomat, is realizing her first abroad visit to Ankara.

The sources underlined that the meetings to be held in Ankara have a special significance in terms of improving bilateral dialogue in the field of counterterrorism.

The decision to create the Security Compact mechanism was given at a meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg during the alliance's Vilnius Summit in July 2023.

Türkiye had greenlighted Sweden's and Finland's joining the alliance only after these two Nordic states agreed to fight against the presence of PKK and other anti-Türkiye terror organizations.

A trilateral agreement signed between Türkiye, Sweden and Finland in June 2022 stipulated the implementation of a road map that outlined the measures these two countries will fulfill in combatting terror. Finland entered NATO in 2023 and Sweden in early 2024.

In Ankara, Turkish and Swedish officials will review the ongoing security cooperation and discuss what additional measures can be taken against PKK, PYD and FETÖ.

In line with the trilateral agreement, Sweden had amended its anti-terror law and changed some of its constitutional articles in a...