Türkiye urges Sweden for concrete steps on NATO bid

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With around a month left for NATO critical leaders' summit scheduled to take place in Vilnius, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has spoken over the phone with his Swedish and American counterparts separately to reiterate that Türkiye expects Sweden to take concrete steps in line with the trilateral agreement if it wants to join the alliance.

Fidan held separate phone conversations with Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken late on June 7, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. The main theme of both engagements was Sweden's aspiration to join NATO before the Vilnius Summit of NATO on July 11 and 12.

Fidan told Billström that Ankara expects concrete actions from Stockholm in line with the trilateral memorandum signed between Türkiye, Sweden and Finland in June 2022. The agreement obliges Finland and Sweden to cooperate with Türkiye in the fight against terrorism, stop the activities of the terrorists and extradite the terrorists.

As Finland complied with the memorandum, the Turkish parliament ratified its application in late March. Sweden has still things to do, Ankara believes.

Turkish and Swedish foreign ministers also agreed to establish contact after the next meeting of the joint permanent commission, which will take place in Türkiye in the coming days. The permanent mechanism assesses to what extent the trilateral memorandum has been implemented by the applicant countries.

Sweden to extradite PKK terrorist

In the meantime, according to the reports by the Swedish media, the Swedish top court has agreed to extradite a PKK-affiliated person to Türkiye, but the last word still belongs to the Swedish government.

Swedish daily...