Turkey Has Agreed to Let Sweden Join NATO
Turkey Has Agreed to Let Sweden Join NATO
July 10, 2023 at 3:45 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 123 Comments
https://politicalwire.com/2023/07/10/turkey-has-agreed-to-let-sweden-join-nato/
"SNIP.........
“Turkey’s president gave his approval for Sweden to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the alliance’s secretary general said, paving the way for NATO to complete a historic expansion launched in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The last-minute solution to the deadlock allows NATO to enter the summit having ironed out major differences, projecting unity in the face of Russian aggression.”
Taegon Goddard:
This is a major and very consequential win for President Biden.
........SNIP"
Applegrove:
You would think after Turkey has to take in millions of Syrian refugees that they would see the danger in Russia destabilizing the world as Russia backed Assad and kept Syrian war going.
= new reply since forum marked as read
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Prime Minister of Sweden, Ulf Kristersson
On 10 July, 2023, President Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan of Türkiye, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of Sweden, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met at the NATO Summit in Vilnius.
Since the last NATO Summit, Sweden and Türkiye have worked closely together to address Türkiye’s legitimate security concerns. As part of that process, Sweden has amended its constitution, changed its laws, significantly expanded its counter- terrorism cooperation against the PKK, and resumed arms exports to Türkiye, all steps set out in the Trilateral Memorandum agreed in 2022.
Sweden and Türkiye agree today to continue their cooperation under both the Trilateral Permanent Joint Mechanism established at the Madrid NATO Summit 2022, and under a new bilateral Security Compact that will meet annually at ministerial level and create working groups as appropriate. At the first meeting of this Security Compact, Sweden will present a roadmap as the basis of its continued fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations towards the full implementation of all elements of the Trilateral Memorandum, including article 4. Sweden reiterates that it will not provide support to YPG/PYD, and the organisation described as FETÖ in Türkiye.
Both Sweden and Türkiye agreed that counter-terrorism cooperation is a long-term effort, which will continue beyond Sweden’s accession to NATO. Secretary General Stoltenberg also reconfirmed that NATO categorically condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. NATO will be significantly stepping up its work in this area, including by the Secretary General establishing, for the first time at NATO, the post of Special Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism.
We commit to the principle that there should be no restrictions, barriers or sanctions to defence trade and investment among Allies. We will work towards eliminating such obstacles.
Sweden and Türkiye have also agreed to step up economic cooperation, through the Türkiye-Sweden Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO). Both Türkiye and Sweden will look to maximise opportunities to increase bilateral trade and investments. Sweden will actively support efforts to reinvigorate Türkiye’s EU accession process, including modernisation of the EU-Türkiye Customs Union and visa liberalisation.
On this basis, and given the imperatives of the deterrence and defence of the Euro- Atlantic area, Türkiye will transmit the Accession Protocol for Sweden to the Grand National Assembly, and work closely with the Assembly to ensure ratification.
Something's happening here, but what it is ain't exactly clear ...
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