DÉFENSE ZONE
Turkey has announced its intention to support Sweden’s accession to NATO. The conditions are numerous and mark a turning point in relations between the two countries.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius on 10 July 2023. The meeting provided an opportunity to discuss Turkey’s security concerns and Sweden’s efforts to address them. Since the last NATO summit, Sweden has amended its constitution, changed its laws, stepped up its counter-terrorism cooperation (particularly against Kurdish organisations) and committed to resuming its arms exports to Turkey. On this basis, Turkey will transmit Sweden’s accession protocol to the Turkish Grand National Assembly for ratification.
In terms of commitments, Sweden and Turkey agreed to continue their cooperation within the Permanent Joint Trilateral Mechanism established at the NATO summit in Madrid in 2022, as well as under a new bilateral Security Compact. Sweden has undertaken not to support the YPG/PYD and FETÖ organisations, which Turkey considers terrorist groups. The two countries also agreed to strengthen their economic cooperation and to work towards removing obstacles to trade and investment in the defence sector.
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