Türkiye has not closed the door on Sweden’s NATO membership if it takes the necessary steps, according to Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalın.
“The door is not closed to Stockholm now, but how the process will progress, its pace, and when it will be completed depends on Sweden’s steps,” Kalın told private broadcaster NTV on Saturday.
He said Sweden’s new government is “sincere and diligent in this regard. But it does not have enough instruments to take legal action” to address Türkiye’s security concerns.
A constitutional amendment was made in Sweden last year and took effect in January, and a new counterterrorism law in this context will enter into force on June 1, Kalın recalled.
“When they complete it in about two months, it will be possible for them to take more decisive, concrete and fruitful steps to address our security concerns,” he said, reiterating that Ankara is not against NATO enlargement in principle.
The law will come into effect in June, said Kalın, adding that “we’ll see how fast they can move.”
Sweden and Finland made an application together, but Finland has taken “a constructive stance on both the structuring of the PKK and the Gülenist Terrorist Group (FETÖ), the lifting of restrictions in the field of the defense industry, and the inclusion of Türkiye in programs such as PESCO within the European Union,” he said.
The Permanent Structured Cooperation, or PESCO, is part of the EU’s security and defense policy.
He added that Finland, with its constructive attitude, adopted a “more transparent and more fruitful stance” regarding Türkiye’s demands.
“After evaluations, we concluded that we can approve Finland’s bid,” he said.
The top presidential adviser also said Ankara is not delaying the NATO bids of the two countries, as he referred to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s remarks saying that they were proceeding speedily.
He said none of the NATO member-states raised objections when Greece delayed North Macedonia’s accession for 10 years over a name dispute.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently approved Finland’s NATO accession bill and sent it to Parliament for ratification. On Thursday, Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Commission approved the bill that will eventually pave the way for Finland’s membership.
Ankara has been swarmed by pleas from Swedish, Finnish and NATO officials to greenlight the membership bids of the Nordic countries since they applied to join the bloc last year, spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Especially in the past three months, increasing protests targeting Türkiye by members and sympathizers of terrorist groups like the PKK, its Syrian offshoot, the YPG, and FETÖ put stark emphasis on Türkiye’s security concerns.
A trilateral memorandum the sides inked in Madrid last June won Ankara concrete promises it had demanded, especially in counterterrorism laws, terrorist extraditions and the lifting of an arms embargo.
The memorandum envisages Finland and Sweden, as future NATO allies, to show full solidarity and cooperation with Türkiye in the fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, against all threats to its national security.
But Türkiye suspended trilateral talks for the two countries’ applications in January after Sweden authorized a far-right figure to burn a copy of the Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm and allowed terrorist PKK supporters to hold anti-Türkiye rallies.
After hosting Finnish President Sauli Biinisto in Ankara on March 17, Erdoğan announced Türkiye would start the process for admitting Finland into the alliance, citing the Nordic country’s effort to keep its promises and expressing hope that Finland’s application could be greenlit before Türkiye's presidential and Parliamentary elections on May 14.
For Sweden’s NATO odds, Erdoğan said Türkiye was “not yet ready” to approve their bid but assured Ankara and Stockholm would “continue discussing terrorism-related issues.”
Talks between the sides are still underway.
Meanwhile, Kalın on Saturday further commented on the sale of U.S.-made F-16 jets and modernization kits to Türkiye, stressing that the jets would strengthen Türkiye and NATO.
Regarding the Russia-Ukraine war, he said there is a “very strong pro-war climate in Washington, especially in the context of the Russia-Ukraine War. They want war; they want it to be prolonged, and unfortunately, the war will continue.”
“It will continue to intensify. But, of course, this is a great loss not only for Ukraine but also for the region and the world,” he said.
Stressing the importance of Türkiye’s attempts to end the war and start negotiations, Kalın said President Erdoğan has made many initiatives as Ankara has “displayed a principled and balanced attitude from the very beginning.”
As for the normalization of Ankara-Cairo relations, Kalın said Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu’s recent visit to Egypt was “significant and productive.”
“We clearly believe that the normalization of Türkiye-Egypt relations is vital not only for the two countries but also for the dynamics of the region. It is also beneficial for Libya and Palestine. Moreover, it is in the interest of the whole region in the fight against terrorism,” he said.
