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Turkey has agreed to confess Sweden to NATO following closed-door negotiations between NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and the leaders of the 2 international locations forward of a NATO summit in Lithuania.
“Finishing Sweden’s accession to NATO is a historic step that can profit the safety of all NATO allies at this important time,” Stoltenberg stated at a press convention in Vilnius late Monday.
Hours after Ankara’s determination was introduced, the administration of US President Joe Biden introduced it will proceed with the switch of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey in session with the US Congress in what gave the impression to be a trade-off for the inexperienced Ankara coverage. gentle for Stockholm’s NATO membership.
Individually, the Pentagon stated Tuesday that US Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin mentioned his nation’s function in Turkey’s navy modernization with Turkish Protection Minister Yasar Guler on the cellphone — one other indication that Sweden’s accession negotiations have been being helped by a protection deal between the US and Turkey.
Ankara sought to purchase US F-16s and modernize the F-16s it already owns in compensation for the 2019 elimination of a US-led worldwide program to develop and produce new F-35 fighter jets. Washington exonerated Turkey from the favored plan after buying the S-400 protection system from Russia, regardless of warnings from the US.
The event led to a bilateral disaster between the 2 allies and Washington’s imposition of protection sanctions on Turkey in December 2020 beneath the Countering America’s Adversaries By way of Sanctions Act (CAATSA) – the primary time such sanctions have focused a NATO member.
This made Ankara’s veto of Sweden’s NATO bid a thorn within the aspect of its relationship with the West, which has been shaky for greater than a yr. Sweden and Finland utilized for membership in Could 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Turkey’s broader agenda
In response to Galip Dalay, a non-resident senior fellow on the Center East Council on World Affairs, Sweden’s NATO membership has been a subheading on Turkey’s agenda for the West, and extra particularly for the US.
“Ankara’s expectations in the direction of Washington F-16s are clear from day one on this course of. Nevertheless, Turkey additionally sought common normalization and enchancment of its relations with EU international locations and the US generally by Sweden’s course of, utilizing it as a hyperlink,” Dalay instructed Al Jazeera.
Sweden agreed to work intently with Ankara to handle its safety issues by annual trilateral talks involving NATO, in response to a joint assertion launched late Monday after the talks. Following an analogous unexecuted deal negotiated in Madrid in 2022, Stockholm confirmed its “counter-terrorism” efforts would proceed after becoming a member of the alliance.
Sweden reiterated that it’s going to not help Kurdish militant teams, and the group Turkey describes because the “Fethullah Terror Group”, which is accused of a failed coup in 2016 that claimed a whole lot of lives.
Dalay stated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wished to set an instance for Sweden to ship a message to the West about his issues about “terrorism”.
“Ankara needs Sweden to vary its legal guidelines to toughen terrorism to have a spillover impact on different Western allies, pushing them to do the identical to the teams Ankara considers terrorists,” he instructed Al Jazeera.
Dalay additionally stated Erdogan has achieved what he wished relating to Turkey-European Union ties by linking, virtually in writing, Ankara’s troubles with the bloc to Sweden’s bid for NATO.
The joint assertion referred to Turkey’s frozen EU accession course of, with Sweden expressing help for efforts to revive accession negotiations. Ankara has been a candidate for membership since 2005 and negotiations haven’t progressed since 2016.
Within the joint assertion, Stockholm additionally pledged to “actively help efforts” in two areas Ankara wished improved: modernization of the EU-Turkey customs union and visa liberalization.
Ankara has repeatedly condemned the rise in rejected Schengen visa functions by Turkish residents and is demanding visa-free journey for Turks in Europe.
EU officers say Ankara must work on the bloc’s standards to get the concession, claiming there was no mishandling of functions by Turkish residents.
Turkey has additionally been pushing for adjustments to the customs union it has had with the EU since 1996. The EU has not agreed to begin talks on the problem, regardless of calls from Ankara and buying and selling communities in each international locations.
Erdogan hyperlinks EU and NATO points
Earlier than Vilnius, Erdogan linked Stockholm’s NATO supply to resuming EU negotiations with Turkey – a request instantly rejected by Washington and Berlin.
“Come first and pave the best way for Turkey to hitch the European Union after which we’ll pave the best way for Sweden, identical to we did for Finland,” he stated earlier than leaving on Monday.
Marwan Kalaban, director of coverage evaluation on the Arab Heart for Analysis and Coverage Research in Doha, stated the Turkish president knew this situation wouldn’t be met when he made the assertion.
“Erdogan tried to profit from this take care of Sweden, the US and the EU,” he instructed Al Jazeera.
Nevertheless, he added that Erdogan additionally wished to keep away from a doable wider disaster with the West as his nation skilled its worst financial turbulence in many years.
Dalay stated Erdogan was upping the ante by linking Turkey’s EU and Sweden’s NATO ambitions to get the help he wished over the customs union and visa-free journey.
Ankara has not but made an official assertion on the deal and Sweden’s accession to NATO will solely occur after ratification by the Turkish parliament, for which there isn’t a timetable but.
The closed-door deal signifies that the topic is not on the agenda of the two-day NATO summit in Vilnius.
An identical settlement agreed in Madrid in June 2022 didn’t result in Sweden becoming a member of, as Ankara was not happy with Stockholm’s implementation of the settlement, notably its efforts to counter “terrorism”.
Since then, Sweden has made adjustments to its structure and different legal guidelines to strengthen regulation within the space, and has taken a harder stance on rallies in help of banned teams and makes an attempt to gather or present monetary support to them.
Why Turkey Modified Its Place on Sweden’s NATO Membership | NATO Information
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