Sweden warns that it cannot meet Turkey’s demands to support NATO’s bid

Sweden said Turkey was demanding concessions Stockholm could not grant to grant its application to join NATO as the prime minister insisted his country had done everything it could to address Ankara’s concerns.

Ulf Kristersson, the new center-right leader, on Sunday threw out the challenge to Turkey in the clearest indication yet from Stockholm that it could do more to help persuade Turkey. Drop his opposition to neighboring Sweden and Finland to join the Western military alliance.

Turkey confirms that we did what we said we would do. But they also say they want things that we cannot and will not give them. “The decision is now up to Turkey,” Kristersson told a Swedish defense conference.

The new Swedish government has said joining NATO is its top priority, and its application has been approved by 28 of the alliance’s 30 members. But Hungary – whose parliament is expected to ratify membership bids from Sweden and Finland in the coming weeks – and Turkey have yet to do so.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Sweden has repeatedly accused Harboring Kurdish terrorists and alleged members of an Islamic sect accused of perpetrating a failed coup in 2016.

Erdoğan singled out one journalist — Bulent Kniş, former editor-in-chief of the daily Zaman — and demanded his deportation over his alleged role in the coup attempt. Sweden’s Supreme Court in December rejected the extradition request, ruling that Kniss faced persecution for his political views in Turkey.

Stockholm made a number of privileges To Ankara, including distancing itself from Kurdish militias, lifting the ban on arms exports to Turkey and stressing that it will work to combat terrorism.

Kristerson said on Sunday that Stockholm was fulfilling commitments it made at the NATO summit in Madrid last July but had to follow the deportation law, a court procedure in Sweden in which the government has no role.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Opinion polls have shown that Swedes are not in favor of making too many concessions to Turkey: In a poll for daily Dagens Nyheter last week, 79 percent said they wanted Sweden to stand up for the rule of law — even if it delayed its membership in NATO.

When asked if Turkey would ratify Sweden’s membership before its presidential elections in June, Christerson said it was “impossible to know”.

Pekka Haavisto, Finland’s foreign minister, said it appeared unlikely that Turkey would ratify the two countries’ membership before the elections, making the NATO summit in Vilnius in July the next likely deadline.

Speaking at the same event on Sunday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg did not directly refer to Turkey obstructing the process, but said he was “glad that the agreement [with Ankara] Followed by.” He was confident that we would soon be able to make a warm welcome [Sweden and Finland] as full members of NATO.

Membership in both countries “erases gray areas, strengthens the political community, and . . . will make us all safer,” Stoltenberg said.

The NATO chief bet on his personal credibility in the membership process, after he played a personal role in concluding the tripartite agreement with Erdogan last summer, and traveled to meet the Turkish leader to urge him to lift his ban on ratification.

But on Sunday, he noted that regardless of the process, applicants have already been treated as members in a range of areas, including the coalition’s joint defense provision. He added: “It is inconceivable that NATO does not act if the security of Sweden and Finland is threatened.”

Christerson also outlined Sweden’s potential military contribution to NATO once it becomes a NATO member. He said that his country will participate in NATO air police missions in the Baltic states, the Black Sea and Iceland. Sweden will also seek to join the European Sky Shield initiative, a German-led plan to create a continental air and missile defense system.

Additional reporting by Ayla Jean Yakli in Istanbul