ERDOGAN: WE WILL OPEN THE DOOR TO SWEDEN JOINING NATO IF TURKEY JOINS THE EU

Mon 10 July 2023:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that if the European Union begins long-stalled membership discussions with Ankara, he will support Sweden’s NATO candidacy.

“First, open the way for Turkey’s membership in the European Union, and then we will open it for Sweden, just as we had opened it for Finland,” Erdogan said in a televised media appearance on Monday before departing for the NATO summit in Lithuania.

The Turkish leader said he told the same thing to US President Joe Biden when the pair spoke by phone on Sunday.

Erdogan also said Sweden’s accession hinges on the implementation of a deal reached in June last year during the alliance’s summit in Madrid.

Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership last year, abandoning their policies of military non-alignment due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. New members require approval from all NATO countries, and Finland was given the green light in April.

Turkey first applied to become a member of the European Economic Community, a predecessor to the EU, in 1987.

It became an EU candidate country in 1999 and formally launched membership negotiations with the bloc in 2005.

The talks stalled in 2016 over European concerns about human rights violations in Turkey.

“I would like to underline one reality,” Erdogan said. “Turkey has been waiting at the EU’s front door for 50 years.”

“Almost all the NATO members are EU members. I now am addressing these countries, which are making Turkey wait for more than 50 years, and I will address them again in Vilnius.”

Ankara’s delays on Sweden’s accession have exasperated other NATO allies, including the US.

The White House, which has also supported Turkey’s EU aspirations, said those discussions are a matter between Turkey and the bloc’s 27 members.

“Our focus is on Sweden, which is ready to join the NATO alliance,” a White House National Security Council spokesperson said.

A European Commission spokesperson said NATO and EU memberships were “separate processes” that “cannot be linked”.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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