“It is good to have a meeting in Brussels so that they can see Sweden does not fulfill its responsibilities,” Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Monday as Ankara reiterated its opposition to the Nordic country’s NATO accession bid. Çavuşoğlu also announced that the trilateral talks between Türkiye, Sweden and Finland would resume on March 9, after a postponement amid international furor against the burning of the Quran by a far-right politician outside the Turkish Embassy in Sweden.
The two countries' membership depends on ratifying an accession deal by NATO members Türkiye and Hungary. Çavuşoğlu hosted his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto in the capital Ankara.
“With regards to the membership of Finland and Sweden, the position of Türkiye is clear and transparent,” Çavuşoğlu said. Reiterating that terrorism is one of the two main threats to NATO, Çavuşoğlu said Türkiye expects the two Nordic countries to address Ankara’s concerns regarding the fight against terrorism.
Since signing the trilateral memorandum at the NATO Madrid summit in June 2022, the minister said, “Sweden has not taken any satisfying steps.”
“There are pledges (by Sweden and Finland) to NATO membership. We can’t say ‘yes’ to Sweden’s NATO membership without seeing these steps,” he said.
He also said the NATO bids of the two Nordic countries could be assessed separately, as Türkiye is more favorable toward Finland’s process. Çavuşoğlu pointed to the mechanism established between Türkiye, Sweden and Finland and said a third meeting could be beneficial, especially since it will be held in Brussels.
“We have seen some statements (by Swedish officials), determination and a new government. They also amended their laws, especially regarding counterterrorism,” Çavuşoğlu said, listing positive steps made by Sweden so far. Nevertheless, he added that the activities of terrorist groups continue in Sweden. He also spoke about the Quran burning incidents in Sweden that he described as crimes against humanity.
Çavuşoğlu stated that the trilateral mechanism between the three countries was not established to negotiate Finland and Sweden’s membership to NATO but rather to review whether the two countries were adhering to a memorandum they signed with Türkiye. A note signed last June involves addressing Türkiye’s security concerns and fulfilling key demands such as stricter anti-terror laws and the extradition of terror suspects.
The minister emphasized that Türkiye did not have “bad relations” with Sweden and Finland and they were not “adversaries” but added: “But there is a serious problem, and it is also a problem for NATO. We cannot approve Sweden’s membership if they do not fulfill their responsibilities,” he stressed.
The United States and other NATO countries hope that the two Nordic countries become members of the alliance at a NATO summit due to be held on July 11 in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius. However, while Ankara earlier has signaled it could approve Finland, it has given no assurances that it will provide Sweden’s bid the green light by then.
Separately, Çavuşoğlu hailed the ties between Türkiye and Hungary, as he thanked his Hungarian counterpart for the solidarity and the aid provided to the earthquake-hit country. Saying that Hungary sent search and rescue teams consisting of 167 personnel to Türkiye, and that their first team reached the region within the first 22 hours of the earthquake and rescued 35 people from the rubble in the southeastern provinces of Kahramanmaraş and Hatay. He also emphasized that there are strong historical ties between Türkiye and Hungary and that the two countries are working to increase relations to strategic partnership level.
For his part, Hungary's Szijjarto expressed his condolences to Türkiye and its people over the deadly earthquakes, as he said that no one could be prepared for such a disaster. "Türkiye is a friend of Hungary. We will stand with our friends as they are in trouble, and we will continue to stand by them for their re-normalization in the future," he added. Szijjarto also commented on Türkiye's role in the security of energy supply and said: "Türkiye provides a large part of Hungary's natural gas supply in transit. Our future natural gas diversification plans cannot be without Türkiye as the natural gas purchase from Azerbaijan is possible only by transiting to Central Europe via Türkiye."
