US, NATO agree to Ankara's terms
International review on Caliber.Az

ANALYTICS  23 February 2023 - 17:12

The issue of Sweden and Finland joining NATO is still open due to Türkiye's negative attitude towards this, although for almost a year the alliance itself has been making a lot of efforts to find compromise solutions to this problem.

Last week, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, during a visit to Türkiye, said that the time has come to finally ratify the applications of Sweden and Finland to join the alliance. Stoltenberg visited Ankara ten days after the devastating earthquake that hit the southeast of Türkiye and some areas of Syria.

Calling on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to ratify Finland and Sweden's applications for membership of the bloc, the secretary-general, noting that NATO supports Türkiye in difficult times, seemed to hint that Ankara should give its consent for the two Nordic countries to join the alliance before the summit in Vilnius scheduled for July this year.

"I still believe it is time to ratify the accession of both Finland and Sweden," Stoltenberg said after talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. - Both treaties can be ratified now. But the main issue is not that they will be ratified together, but that they should be ratified as soon as possible."

Sweden and Finland are known to have applied to join NATO after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but Türkiye, as a member of the alliance, has yet to ratify the relevant documents, arguing that the countries are detrimental to its national security. In particular, supporters of Kurdish terrorist groups live peacefully in both Sweden and Finland.

Incidentally, in addition to Türkiye, Hungary has not ratified the Scandinavian applications, although it was reported relatively recently that the country's legislature will still approve both applications by March.

In principle, Türkiye has also announced that it is ready to approve Finland's application as soon as possible. With Sweden, on the other hand, things are much more complicated. At a joint press conference with Stoltenberg in Ankara, the Turkish foreign minister stated unequivocally that Türkiye could consider Finland's membership in NATO separately from Sweden.

"We have always said that we have no serious problems with Finland. As for Sweden, we are for a strong NATO," Cavusoglu explained his country's position.

Earlier, President Erdogan had also said that Sweden should not count on Türkiye's support for its NATO membership. The Turkish leader's categorical statement was preceded by a protest outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm in which supporters of the far-right hardline party burned a Quran.

Erdogan's main grievance against Sweden, however, is Stockholm's refusal to extradite to Türkiye dozens of people whom Ankara links to terrorism and the 2016 coup attempt. In this regard, Cavusoglu has repeatedly stressed that Sweden has still not done enough to combat Kurdish terrorism.

Taking into account Türkiye's claims last December, Sweden extradited to Türkiye the first person convicted of membership in the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Ankara considers a terrorist organisation, and thus effectively took a concrete step to implement the memorandum of NATO membership signed with Türkiye that provides for extradition of persons involved in terrorist activities.

Is the US willing to meet Türkiye's conditions for the sake of NATO enlargement?

The US fully supports the possibility of NATO enlargement and is willing to make concessions to Türkiye on defence and arms issues for this purpose, as indicated by the following fact. In January this year, the Wall Street Journal reported that US President Joe Biden asked Congress to approve the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Türkiye with the expectation that Türkiye would approve the Scandinavian bid.

According to calculations of military experts, the cost of the deal to sell F-16s will amount to $20 billion, which will be the largest arms contract in all recent years. Presumably, the US is planning to sell Türkiye 40 new F-16 fighters, as well as kits for the repair and maintenance of 79 F-16s, already in Ankara's armament.

It should be noted that the US has imposed sanctions on some Turkish defence officials and excluded Türkiye from the Washington-led F-35 fighter jet programme after Ankara bought Russian S-400 air defence systems.

Accordingly, it is obvious that the Turkish side had reasonable claims in matters of defence and armaments, including to the States themselves. Nevertheless, it is known that during the meeting with Foreign Minister Cavusoglu, and then with President Erdogan during the recent visit of American Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to Ankara, the issue of membership of Sweden and Finland in NATO was also discussed, which indicates that the United States is purposefully promoting the NATO agenda for the two Scandinavian countries. And judging by the general belligerent mood within the military bloc itself, Washington will also continue its efforts to ensure that the applications of candidate countries are ratified by Türkiye in the near future, or rather, before the NATO summit in Lithuania.

Therefore, it can be assumed that both Washington and NATO agree to a certain compromise with Ankara for the sake of the enlargement of the alliance. And not insignificantly, the growing political weight of Turkey itself as an independent power capable of defending its national interests in any, even the most critical situation and in spite of external threats, contributes greatly to this.

Türkiye has repeatedly proved through its actions that security issues are the top priority of its state policy. Moreover, the uniqueness of Türkiye's policy is also in the fact that it is the only country that, while remaining a full-fledged member of the alliance, actually forces such a major superpower as the United States to reckon with its interests. Thus, it is quite possible that the Swedes and Finns will have to accept Ankara's conditions to gain its agreement to full membership in NATO.

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