NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg sees NATO as a whole strengthened with the end of the Turkish blockade against Sweden’s accession. The agreement reached with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the previous evening significantly strengthens the defense of the alliance and is also in the interests of Turkey itself, says Stoltenberg on the morning in Vilnius before the NATO summit officially begins. He is “absolutely convinced” that Turkey will now ratify Sweden’s accession protocol and that the main problem has been solved, he said. “This summit is historic before it even began,” said Stoltenberg.
Erdogan had given up his blockade of Sweden’s accession the night before and, according to NATO, wants to submit the accession protocol to the Turkish parliament for a decision.
The vote in Turkey’s Grand National Assembly is considered a formality. In alliance with the ultra-nationalists, Erdogan’s Islamic-conservative AKP has a comfortable majority in parliament.
The two-day NATO summit in Lithuania begins today with discussions on further support for Ukraine and the expansion of deterrence and defense against Russia. Stoltenberg wants the summit meeting to send a clear signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to the Norwegian, the latter must accept that the war against Ukraine is doomed to failure and that any aggression against a NATO state would result in a determined reaction from the entire alliance.
“It’s been a good day for Sweden”
The dispute over Sweden’s NATO membership threatened to overshadow the meeting in Vilnius. The relief was correspondingly great after Erdogan gave up his blocking stance. Sweden’s Prime Minister Kristersson said: “It has been a good day for Sweden.” US President Joe Biden welcomed Turkey’s decision and said he looks forward to welcoming Sweden as NATO’s 32nd member. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described the agreement on Twitter as a “historic step”.
NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg referred to several steps that Sweden had taken, including changes to the constitution and laws, an expansion of anti-terrorist cooperation against the Kurdish PKK and the resumption of arms exports to Turkey. Both countries want to talk bilaterally about security in the future. According to Stoltenberg, NATO will also be given the post of special coordinator for anti-terrorist tasks for the first time. He dodged an answer to the question of when Sweden’s NATO accession could be completed.
Erdogan snubs NATO partners with demands
Surprisingly, shortly before the start of the summit, Erdogan initially made his country’s approval of Sweden’s admission to NATO dependent on Turkey’s EU accession process, which had been put on hold years ago, being resumed. This is problematic because the EU has been accusing Turkey of not meeting democratic and rule-of-law standards for years. Turkey’s admission is therefore considered illusory for years to come. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) spoke out clearly against linking Sweden’s NATO accession to Turkey’s EU accession process. Both questions were not related.
No decision yet on Ukraine’s accession prospects
Germany rejected Ukraine’s request for a formal invitation to join NATO. “The time has not come for Ukraine to be invited to take concrete steps towards membership. There is no consensus on this, even among the allies,” government circles said.
According to diplomats from other NATO countries, the German government is also opposed to the formulation that Ukraine has a “rightful place” in the alliance in the negotiations on the planned summit declaration. From German government circles, the statement only said that this was one “of five or six questions that are still being discussed at the moment”.
Stoltenberg admitted yesterday that no final decision on Ukraine’s accession prospects had yet been taken. The country has been defending itself against a war of aggression by Russia for 16 months. Consultations on the conditions for Ukraine’s path to NATO membership are still ongoing.
Summit to advance deterrence and defense
Yesterday evening, in a written procedure, the NATO states accepted new plans for defending against possible Russian attacks on alliance territory. The decision is to be confirmed again today by the heads of state and government and then officially announced.
According to information from the German Press Agency, the defense plans, which total more than 4,000 pages, describe in detail how critical locations in the alliance area should be protected by deterrence and defended in an emergency. For this purpose, it is also defined which military capabilities are necessary. In addition to land, air and sea forces, cyber and space capabilities are also included.
