According to Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Sweden has done all it can to accommodate Turkish demands before the approval of the Swedish NATO application. In a speech at the annual defense policy conference in the Sälen ski resort, Kristersson expressed confidence in his country’s future as a NATO member, despite persistent Turkish resistance. He also explained that Turkey “wants things that we cannot and will not give them. The ball is now in Turkey’s court.”
With reference to demands from Ankara regarding the extradition of individuals that the Turkish government has listed as terrorists, Kristersson added:
Now and then, Turkey mentions individuals they would like to see extradited from Sweden. I have replied that those issues are handled within the realm of Swedish law. Swedish citizens will never be extradited to another country, ever.
In an update on the state of the Swedish and Finnish NATO applications, EUobserver.com reports:
Turkey and Sweden have hit a wall in talks on Nato accession, with some predicting Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan won’t give way till July. The deadlock comes after Sweden indicated it won’t extradite anybody else to Turkey just to please Ankara.
In a statement to EUobserver, Bülent Keneş, a Turkish journalist living in exile in Stockholm, explains:
I think, now they [Sweden] lost their patience and want to make the Erdogan regime understand that they demand the impossible.
Sweden coordinated its NATO application with Finland, putting the two remaining Nordic non-NATO countries on a parallel path to accession. During a visit to the Swedish defense conference, Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto declared that “Finland is not in a hurry” to join the alliance, and will patiently await the acceptance of the Swedish application.
To date, 28 of the 30 current NATO members have approved Sweden for membership. In addition to Turkey, Hungary has yet to vote on the expansion of the defense alliance.
