Politics

Blinken urges Turkey to immediately approve Sweden’s NATO accession


  • Blinken wants issue resolved ‘in weeks’
  • Denies sale of F-16 jets is linked
  • Sweden says it has done what it promised Turkey

LULEA, Sweden/WASHINGTON, May 30 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday urged Turkey to immediately finalize Sweden’s accession to NATO, saying the Nordic country had already taken significant steps to address Ankara’s objections to its membership.

Blinken also rejected the suggestion that the Biden administration was linking Turkey’s approval of Sweden’s NATO accession to the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Ankara, although he said the U.S. Congress was. A day before, the U.S. President also alluded to a link.

Speaking at a joint press conference with the Swedish Prime Minister in Lulea, northern Sweden, Blinken said Washington was going to continue to work to complete Sweden’s accession in time for a mid-July NATO summit that will bring together alliance heads of state.

“We believe the time is now and there’s no reason for not moving forward,” Blinken said. “Turkiye has raised important and legitimate concerns. Sweden and Finland both addressed those concerns.”

“We look forward to this process being completed in the weeks ahead. We have no doubt that it can be, and it should be and we expect it to be,” he said.

His comments came hours after Turkey called on Sweden to prosecute those responsible for projecting the flag of an outlawed group onto the parliament building in Stockholm on the day of Turkish elections that extended President Tayyip Erdogan’s rule.

Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership last year, ditching long-held policies of military non-alignment following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Bids for membership must be approved by all NATO members but Turkey and Hungary have yet to approve Sweden’s bid.

Turkey ratified Finland’s NATO accession in late March, but says Sweden harbors members of militant groups it considers terrorists.

“We are in constant contact with our Turkish counterparts on this specific issue,” said Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

Sweden is fulfilling “the very final part” of a memorandum of measures with a new piece of legislation on counter-terrorism due to come into force on June 1, he said.

“We have done what we have told our Turkish friends.”

LINK TO F-16S

Turkey has sought to buy $20 billion worth of F-16s and nearly 80 modernization kits from the United States. But the sale has been stalled due to objections from U.S. Congress over Ankara’s refusal to green light to NATO enlargement, its human rights record and Syria policy. The Biden administration has repeatedly said it supports the sale.

On Monday, Erdogan repeated Turkey’s desire to buy the jets, Biden told reporters after his congratulatory call with the Turkish President, adding that he told him Washington wanted to see Sweden’s NATO accession approved.

Biden’s comments appeared supportive of what many observers said was a quid pro quo between the two issues. But on Tuesday, Blinken maintained that the administration did not see the issues as linked.

“While we are not linking the two issues – when I say we I mean the Biden administration – some members of Congress are,” Blinken said.

A bipartisan group of senators in a February letter to Biden said Turkey’s failure to ratify the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland, which was still waiting at the time, would “call into question this pending sale” of the F-16s.

Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop in Lulea, Humeyra Pamuk and Simon Lewis in Washington, Johan Ahlander and Simon Johnson in Stockholm; Editing by Chris Reese and Conor Humphries

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Humeyra Pamuk

Thomson Reuters

Humeyra Pamuk is a senior foreign policy correspondent based in Washington DC. She covers the U.S. State Department, regularly traveling with U.S. Secretary of State. During her 20 years with Reuters, she has had postings in London, Dubai, Cairo and Turkey, covering everything from the Arab Spring and Syria’s civil war to numerous Turkish elections and the Kurdish insurgency in the southeast. In 2017, she was won the Knight-Bagehot fellowship program at Columbia University’s School of Journalism. She holds a BA in International Relations and an MA on European Union studies.



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