After a year of stubbornly blocking Sweden’s NATO accession—and repeatedly signaling that he wouldn’t budge on the issue—Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, following a meeting with Sweden and NATO leaders in Vilnius on Monday night, finally relented and agreed to support Sweden’s bid to join the U.S.-led military alliance.
Erdoğan’s decision represents yet another snub to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he allegedly has a cordial relationship with. Only a few days earlier, he released a group of Ukrainian Azov commanders to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, breaking a prisoner-exchange agreement between Turkey, Ukraine, and Moscow.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said after hours of grueling negotiations between Turkey and Sweden that Erdoğan had agreed to “forward the accession protocol for Sweden [to join NATO]” to the Turkish parliament as soon as possible and work closely with the assembly to “ensure ratification.”
The NATO chief called it a “historic day,” and said that Turkey and Sweden had addressed “Turkey’s legitimate security concerns.”
Erdoğan’s decision to greenlight Sweden’s NATO membership bid predictably garnered high praise from the White House, with Biden lauding the Turkish leader’s “commitment” to the military bloc’s expansion. According to a release from the White House, Biden said:
I stand ready to work with President Erdoğan and Türkiye on enhancing defense and deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic area. I look forward to welcoming Prime Minister Kristersson and Sweden as our 32nd NATO ally. And I thank Secretary General Stoltenberg for his steadfast leadership.
Germany Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed Sweden’s accession would make everyone “safer.”
Erdoğan’s decision to lift the veto came after he said earlier that morning that Turkey would only consider Sweden’s NATO membership bid if and only if EU officials opened the way for Turkey to join the European Union.
“Turkey has been waiting at the door of the European Union for over 50 years now, and almost all of the NATO member countries are now members of the European Union. I am making this call to these countries that have kept Turkey waiting at the gates of the European Union for more than 50 years,” Erdoğan said, before adding:
Come and open the way for Turkey’s membership in the European Union. When you pave the way for Turkey, we’ll pave the way for Sweden as we did for Finland.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, however, was quick to dismiss the idea that Turkey’s EU accession and Sweden’s NATO accession were in any way connected, insisting that the two procedures are “separate” and happening “in parallel.”
“The European Union has a very structured process of enlargement, with a very, very clear set of steps that need to be taken by all candidate countries and even by those that wish to become candidate countries,” said Dana Spinant, deputy chief spokesperson of the European Commission, on Monday afternoon after hearing of Erdoğan’s demands.
