Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Nato should not bet on his country approving Sweden's application to join the Western military alliance before a July summit – because the Nordic nation has not fully addressed his security concerns.
Sweden and Finland applied for membership together following Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year. Finland became NATO's 31st member in April after the Turkish parliament ratified its request, but Turkey has held off approving Sweden's bid.
Nato wants to bring Sweden into the fold by the time the leaders of member nations meet for a summit in Lithuania's capital on 11-12 July.
Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency and other media reported Erdogan's comments as senior officials from Nato, Sweden, Finland and Turkey met in Ankara on Wednesday. The officials were scheduled to discuss what Finland and Sweden have done to address Turkey's concerns over what it calls terrorist organisations.
Mr Erdogan said the Turkish delegation at the meeting "will give this message: 'This is our president's opinion, don't expect anything different at Vilnius,'" Lithuania's capital. Speaking to journalists on his way back from a state visit to Azerbaijan on Tuesday, Mr Erdogan said Turkey's attitude to the accession was not "positive."
Turkey's government accuses Sweden of being too lenient toward groups that Ankara says pose a security threat, including militant Kurdish groups and people it says are associated with a 2016 coup attempt.
A series of separate demonstrations in Stockholm, including a protest by an anti-Islam activist who burned the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy, also angered Turkish officials.
Speaking in Sweden's parliament, the Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, called the Ankara meeting "very important." Mr Kristersson reiterated that his government had done what it promised in an agreement last year that was intended to secure Turkey's ratification of the country's Nato membership.
However, Mr Erdogan remains unsatisfied. He said he told the Nato secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, last week: "If you expect us to respond to Sweden's expectations, first of all, Sweden must destroy what this terrorist organization has done." He was referring to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, a group that has waged a separatist insurgency in Turkey and is designated a terror organisation by Turkey and the US.
Mr Erdogan said that pro-Kurdish and anti-Nato rallies also took place in Stockholm while he was holding talks with Mr Stoltenberg in Istanbul.
Nato requires the unanimous approval of all existing members to expand, and Turkey and Hungary are the only countries that have not yet ratified Sweden's request to join. Mr Erdogan said he planned to attend the July summit in Lithuania unless "extraordinary" circumstances arise.
On Tuesday, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said after meeting with Mr Stoltenberg that it was "time to welcome Sweden" into the alliance, arguing that Stockholm had "an important and I think very appropriate process on its accession to address appropriate concerns of other allies."
Mr Stoltenberg said: "We all of course look forward to welcoming Sweden as a member of the alliance as soon as possible."
Sweden has amended its constitution and strengthened its anti-terror laws since it applied to join Nato just over a year ago. This week, the Swedish government also decided to extradite a Turkish citizen resident in Sweden who was convicted for drug offenses in Turkey in 2013.
It was not immediately clear if the man, who was not identified publicly, was among the main individuals for whom Turkey sought extradition.
Sweden and Finland's applications to become Nato has meant abandoning decades of non-alignment.
Associated Press
