(Stockholm) NATO showed cautious optimism on Tuesday amid pressure from the United States for Sweden’s rapid entry into the Alliance after the re-election of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the main obstacle to Stockholm’s membership.
“The time has come” for Sweden to join NATO, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday, calling on Turkey and Hungary to end their months-long veto.
“There is no reason to take extra time”, he insisted during a visit to Sweden, on the eve of a meeting of the heads of diplomacy of the countries of the NATO in Oslo, Norway.
Like many of its allies, the United States wants Sweden to join NATO by the next NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11-12, shortly after neighboring Finland joins, effective from April 4.
“We have no doubt that it can be, should be and we expect it to be,” Blinken said.
PHOTO JONAS EKSTRÖMER, ASSOCIATED PRESS
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
The State Department said in the evening that Mr. Blinken had telephoned his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu directly, who is not expected in Oslo.
What will Turkish President Erdogan decide? Be more conciliatory with the Swedish candidacy now that its difficult electoral campaign is over? Or keep it as a negotiating lever, possibly to convince Washington to finally sell it F-16 fighter jets?
The delivery of F-16s and the Swedish candidacy “are separate subjects,” Mr. Blinken said on Tuesday, while President Joe Biden the day before seemed to have linked the two files during an interview with Mr. Erdogan.
Desired by the American administration, the arms contract has so far been blocked by American parliamentarians, worried about the in-between displayed by Turkey with Russia.
In Washington on Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre also tried to correct the impression left by Mr. Biden, assuring that support for Sweden was “not a condition” for the F-16s.
If a defeat of Mr. Erdogan would have facilitated Swedish membership according to analysts, NATO on Tuesday showed relative optimism to solve the equation.
Pro-PKK incident
Swedish membership of NATO is “absolutely possible” by Vilnius, said its secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, during a press conference in Oslo.
“There are no guarantees, but it is absolutely possible to reach a solution to allow the decision on full membership,” said the Norwegian leader, whose mandate ends in the fall.
For the head of the Atlantic Alliance, “there is now a window, in particular after the Turkish elections and with the Turkish Parliament in the process of being constituted”.
A new incident, however, has come to remind us of the fragility of the Swedish candidacy, when Turkey is calling on Sweden to prevent a demonstration by anti-Erdogan activists close to the PKK on Sunday in Stockholm.
A support group for Kurdish fighters in Syria, the Rojava Committee, released a video on Monday showing the movement’s flag projected at night on the facade of the Swedish Parliament.
Ankara deplored on Tuesday an “unacceptable” act by this committee, which seeks by shock actions to block Stockholm’s march towards NATO and compromises with Mr. Erdogan.
“We expect the Swedish authorities to investigate this incident and hold its perpetrators accountable,” said Fahrettin Altun, spokesman for the Turkish presidency.
In the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland announced their candidacy for NATO in May 2022.
After decades of neutrality, then of military non-alignment since the end of the Cold War, the two Nordic countries have considered the security balance created by the fall of the USSR to be obsolete, making it essential in their eyes to benefit from the pact of NATO mutual protection.