(Vilnius) Turkey agreed to Sweden’s NATO membership on Monday, a “historic day” that allows the Allies to show their unity at the start of a summit centered on support for Ukraine , almost 18 months after the start of the Russian offensive.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, re-elected at the end of May for five years, has agreed to send Sweden’s accession protocol to the Turkish Parliament “as soon as possible”, rejoiced NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, since Vilnius, Lithuania.
“Finalizing Sweden’s membership in NATO is a historic step that benefits the security of all NATO allies at this critical time. It makes us all stronger and safer,” he said.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson hailed “a good day” for his country and a “very big step”.
PHOTO YVES HERMAN, REUTERS
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson
The parallel with the previous Atlantic Alliance summit in Madrid a year ago is striking. At the time, already, it had taken hours of negotiations to extract support from the Turkish head of state for the initial invitation sent to Stockholm.
At the start of the day, however, Mr. Erdogan had cast a chill over the prospects for a rapid settlement of this issue, by linking Sweden’s membership of NATO to that – stalled for several years – of the Turkey to the European Union.
A meeting with the President of the European Council Charles Michel had hinted at an improvement, the latter evoking, in a tweet, their common desire to “revitalize” Turkey-EU relations.
Mr. Stoltenberg also said that Sweden had agreed “as a member of the EU, to actively support efforts to reinvigorate Turkey’s EU accession process and to contribute to the modernization of the EU-Turkey customs union agreement and visa liberalisation”.
Hungary too has yet to approve membership, but its Prime Minister Viktor Orban has pledged not to be the last to make the move, hinting he could act quickly.
Stressing he was ‘eager’ to host Sweden as 32e A NATO member state, US President Joe Biden has said he is ready to work with President Erdogan “to strengthen defense and deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic area”.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock welcomed the “good news from Vilnius”.
The head of French diplomacy Catherine Colonna said in a tweet that she hoped that the ratification of Sweden’s accession protocol “will take place as soon as possible”.
Necessary reforms in Ukraine
On the sensitive issue of Ukraine’s membership, the Alliance announced that it was going to lift the MAP (“Membership action plan”), a sort of antechamber to the candidacy for the Alliance which sets a certain number of reform goals.
“But Ukraine will still have to carry out other reforms before joining NATO,” said a Western official on condition of anonymity.
“Ukraine deserves to be part of the Alliance. Not now, because now is war, but we need a clear signal and this signal is needed now,” Zelensky said in a daily video message on Telegram.
For months, the White House has been explaining that Ukraine’s membership cannot be envisaged in the short term and that it is preferable to concentrate on long-term military aid mechanisms.
“The process of joining NATO takes time,” hammered US President Joe Biden in an interview with CNN.
As a new Russian bombardment on a humanitarian aid distribution center in Orikhiv, in central Ukraine, killed at least four people on Monday and the Ukrainian counter-offensive is struggling, members of the Alliance intend to give guarantees as to their commitment to defend Ukraine.
Kyiv on Monday claimed to have regained 14 km2 last week, i.e. 193 km2 since early June.
Several NATO heavyweights are negotiating possible long-term arms supply commitments to Kyiv.
Cluster munitions criticized
The arms pledges would complement the tens of billions of dollars worth of equipment already delivered to Ukraine since Russia invaded Ukraine.
In the meantime, Ukraine has already obtained a promise from Washington on Friday to deliver cluster bombs, highly controversial weapons.
Banned in many countries, the latter are strongly criticized because they kill indiscriminately by dispersing small explosive charges before or after the impact and are accused of causing many collateral civilian victims.
Russia saw it as an “admission of weakness”.
Joe Biden has defended his “difficult” decision. Rishi Sunak, to whom he paid a quick visit, had called on Saturday to “discourage” the use of these weapons prohibited by the Oslo convention of 2008, signed by his country.
The war in Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022 with a Russian invasion, has killed 9,000 civilians, including 500 children, according to the UN, which estimates that the death toll could be much higher.