Sweden says NATO negotiations with Turkey to take some time

  23 May 2022    Read: 589
  Sweden says NATO negotiations with Turkey to take some time

Negotiations with Turkey on Sweden’s membership to NATO will take some more time, the Swedish prime minister said Monday, AzVision.az reports citing Anadolu Agency. 

Magdalena Andersson told Swedish official news agency TT that her meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was “good and positive.”

“Sweden and Finland will continue bilateral and tripartite negotiations with Turkey in the near future but these will take some time,” she said.

Stressing she was looking forward to the upcoming negotiations with Ankara, Andersson said Sweden is one of the first countries that classified the PKK as terrorists.

Sweden and Finland formally applied to join NATO last week -- a decision spurred by Russia's war on Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24.

But Turkey, a longstanding member of the alliance, has voiced objections to the membership bids, criticizing the countries for tolerating and even supporting terrorist groups.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the US, and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people. The YPG is PKK’s Syrian offshoot.


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