Biden agrees to let Sweden into NATO, Erdogan sends him to that country
Listening to the words of the Biden administration or NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, one could easily think that Sweden's NATO membership is a "done deal", just a signature to put on a sheet. Sweden itself says there is "strong support" for Sweden joining the July 11-12 annual summit of NATO heads of state in Vilnius, Lithuania.
But as Al Jazeera points out in a new report, at this point there is only one voice that matters: that of the vetoer. Western officials hoped Erdogan would soften his stance on the diplomatically charged issue after securing a hard-fought re-election last month.” The fact remains that Erdogan has not signaled any change of opinion on the matter, even after Stockholm took pains to bow to Ankara's demands.
“Sweden has expectations. It doesn't mean we will respect them,” Erdogan said this week during high-level talks between Turkish and Swedish officials in Ankara. Stockholm is served.
Sweden's chief negotiator, Oscar Stenstrom, also confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that there has been no progress.
“It is my job to convince our counterpart that we have done enough. I think we did,” Stenstrom said. "But Turkey is not yet ready to make a decision and thinks it needs to have more answers to its questions."
But here's what President Joe Biden said a few weeks ago :
US President Joe Biden said he was confident that Sweden will join NATO "as soon as possible", despite Turkey and Hungary continuing to block the northern European country from joining the alliance.
Speaking at the US Air Force graduation ceremony on Thursday, Biden praised NATO's unity in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
He promises that… “NATO is more energetic and more united than it has been in decades. It is now even stronger with our new ally, Finland – and soon Sweden – joining the alliance as soon as possible. This will happen. I promise you ,”
Stockholm has started to implement some indications of the Erdogan government, in particular the following :
Incidentally, on Monday the Swedish government decided to extradite a PKK supporter to Turkey. The man was convicted of drug offenses in Turkey in 2013, but after serving less than six months of his sentence he was released on parole, left Turkey legally and then moved to Sweden, where he obtained a permit to Work.
According to Swedish media, the 35-year-old claimed that the extradition request to serve a sentence for drug offenses is a pretext and that the "real reason" for his extradition request is that he is a Kurd, actively promoted the Kurdish cause and supports the YPG and the PKK .
But it is clear that, as many had predicted, Erdogan is intent on squeezing everything he can out of both Sweden and his Western allies before giving final approval, which also appears to include Washington's F-16s. In short, Erdogan has no respect for Biden's words and only follows his own interests.
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The article Biden undertakes to bring Sweden into NATO, Erdogan sends him to that country comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/biden-si-impegna-a-far-entrare-le-svezia-nella-nato-erdogan-lo-manda-a-quel-paese/ on Thu, 15 Jun 2023 07:00:25 +0000.