Sweden has met Turkey’s demands for it to join NATO, the alliance’s secretary general, Jen Stoltenberg, said on Sunday after meeting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Istanbul, writes MIA.
Stoltenberg said that Sweden had amended its legislation to meet Turkey’s security concerns, and that talks with Turkey and Sweden would continue in a week’s time.
Following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year, Sweden and Finland applied to join the Western alliance after decades of neutrality.
Finland was accepted as the 31st member in April this year after all NATO members ratified its application, but Turkey and Hungary have yet to ratify Sweden’s.
Turkey justifies its block on the grounds that Sweden does not act against terrorist organizations and in particular its refusal to extradite people viewed by Ankara as terrorists.
New anti-terrorism laws went into force in Sweden on Thursday, making it illegal to participate in, finance or otherwise support a terrorist organization. Years have gone into stiffening the anti-terrorism laws.
NATO leaders are to hold their annual summit in Vilnius in July.
Erdoğan secured a further term as president in a run-off election a week ago. Stoltenberg was present at his swearing in in Ankara on Saturday.
