The Swedish Foreign Ministry acknowledged that a dialogue with Turkey on joining NATO has been ceased. Nonetheless, he expressed hope for joining the alliance at the Vilnius summit on July 12-13.
Today, the Swedish minister for foreign affairs, Tobias Billstrom, said that Stockholm de facto stopped the procedure of joining NATO because of Türkiye’s reaction to the provocative burning of a dummy with the face of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the burning of the Quran that outraged the entire Islamic world.
Billstrom noted, that it is only a temporary halt, and Stockholm still expects to join the North Atlantic Alliance in six months, during the NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11-12.
He expressed confidence that the Turkish parliament is closer than ever to ratifying Sweden's accession to NATO, however, he accused the current authorities of the absence of action until the presidential elections scheduled for May 14.
Stumbling blocks on NATO path
At the moment, almost all members of the Alliance have ratified the integration of Sweden, as well as Finland, except for Türkiye. Ankara demanded from both states, and especially from Stockholm, the extradition of the Kurdistan Workers' Party members, recognized as terrorist organization in Turkey, and members of the FETO organization. At the moment, none of them has been handed over to the Turkish side.
