Sweden to Hold 'Soon' Negotiations with Turkey for NATO Membership

On Monday, the Swedish Foreign Ministry announced that negotiations with Turkey regarding Sweden's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will be held 'soon.' Tobias Billström, Sweden's Foreign Minister, expressed hope that negotiations would resume more swiftly and that Sweden could become the 32nd member of NATO before the NATO summit on July 20-21 in Lithuania. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, both Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership. While Finland has successfully joined NATO, Sweden's membership request has stalled due to objections from Turkey and Hungary. According to Reuters, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's victory in the second round of the Turkish presidential elections seems to have complicated this process. On Monday, Tobias Billström stated in an interview with a state television network that he would meet with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, on Thursday at the NATO Foreign Ministers' meeting in Oslo, Norway. However, a spokesperson later said, 'We have been informed that the Turkish Foreign Minister will not come, so no meeting will take place there.' The spokesperson added that this meeting would be held 'soon.' Turkey and Sweden have had a long-standing tense relationship. Sweden has repeatedly criticized Turkey for its human rights record and failure to adhere to democratic standards. In contrast, Turkey claims that Sweden shelters 'terrorist' groups and has not yet fulfilled its commitments based on the agreement reached last June in Madrid. Negotiations between Sweden and Turkey had been temporarily halted due to the Turkish presidential elections. The U.S. support for Sweden's NATO membership request and reactions to Finland's accession to NATO; Blinken: Finland is stronger and safer within this alliance; the Turkish parliament agreed to Finland's NATO membership; Erdoğan: As long as Sweden allows the burning of the Quran, it will have no place in NATO; Turkey summoned the Swedish ambassador over a television comedy program.