Turkey continues to block Sweden and Finland from joining NATO.
Stockholm and Ankara are now seeking personal talks.
Stockholm/Ankara – There seems to be no end in sight to the NATO dispute between Sweden and Turkey.
While the government in Stockholm was still confident at the start of the accession process that it would find a speedy solution, the conflict with Ankara has since escalated.
The two parties to the conflict are therefore now seeking personal contact again.
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Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey, continues to block Sweden and Finland from joining NATO.
(archive image)
© Paul Hanna/imago
Northward enlargement of NATO: Turkey blocks accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO
At the invitation of the Turkish government around President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Defense Minister Pål Jonson wants to travel to Turkey next week.
He intends to come to the Turkish capital at the end of next week, he told Swedish broadcaster
SVT
on Thursday after a press conference in Stockholm .
According to the state news agency
Anadolu
, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar confirmed on Wednesday that such a visit was planned.
Sweden and neighboring Finland applied for NATO membership in May 2022 in the wake of the Russian attack on Ukraine.
All 30 NATO members must ratify the proposals.
28 have already done so, only Turkey and Hungary not yet.
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban promised in November that ratification should be on the parliamentary agenda as soon as possible after the turn of the year.
Sweden and Finland join NATO: new tensions in dispute with Turkey
Turkey has long blocked NATO's northern expansion.
Among other things, she accuses Sweden of supporting "terrorist organizations" and demands the extradition of a number of people whom Ankara regards as terrorists.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently spoke of a list of around 130 people.
The fact that activists hung a doll resembling Erdogan by its feet during a protest in central Stockholm recently sparked new strife between the two countries.
As a result, Turkey canceled a visit by the Swedish Parliament President Andreas Norlén to Ankara.
(
vbu/dpa
)
List of rubrics: © Paul Hanna/imago