BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday he has called a meeting of senior officials from Turkey, Sweden and Finland for July 6 to try to overcome Turkish objections to Sweden joining the military alliance.
Hungarian lawmakers, meanwhile, said a long-delayed vote in parliament on ratifying Sweden’s NATO membership bid would not happen until the autumn legislative session. That would almost certainly mean the Nordic nation will not get the green light in time for a major July 11-12 summit.
Sweden applied to join NATO last year after Russia invaded Ukraine amid widespread concern in Europe that President Vladimir Putin might broaden the war. The Nordic country has changed its anti-terror laws and lifted an arms embargo on Turkey to satisfy its demands.
But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement posted on his social media account that he spoke with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz earlier Wednesday by phone and again raised his concerns over Sweden’s NATO membership.
“President Erdogan stated that while taking steps in the right direction, especially the change in Sweden’s anti-terror legislation, supporters of the PKK/PYD/YPG in Sweden continue to freely organize demonstrations praising terrorism, recruiting people and providing financial resources to terrorist organizations, and that this situation is unacceptable for Turkey.”
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has waged a 38-year insurgency against Turkey that has left tens of thousands dead. It is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S and the European Union.
Turkey’s government accuses Sweden of being too lenient toward groups that Ankara says pose a security threat, including militant Kurdish groups and people associated with a 2016 coup attempt.
Sweden has a Kurdish diaspora of around 100,000 people.
Calling the July 6 pre-summit meeting had represented a last-ditch effort by Stoltenberg to bring the Nordic country into NATO's ranks at the summit. That would be a highly symbolic moment and another indication of how Russia’s war in Ukraine is driving countries to join the Western alliance.
“The time is now to welcome Sweden as a full member of NATO,” Stoltenberg told reporters. Foreign ministers, intelligence chiefs and security advisers from Turkey, Sweden and Finland, which joined NATO in April, will be taking part in the talks in Brussels.
NATO requires the unanimous approval of all members to expand.
Fearing they might be targeted by Moscow after Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Sweden and Finland abandoned their traditional positions of military nonalignment to seek protection under NATO’s security umbrella.
Hungary has never clearly stated publicly what its concerns are about Sweden's possible membership. NATO officials expect that it will follow suit once Turkey lifts its objections.
In a Facebook post, Agnes Vadai, a lawmaker with Hungary’s opposition Democratic Coalition party, wrote that Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his governing Fidesz party would not schedule a vote on Sweden’s accession during its final spring session next week.
The postponement is the latest in a long succession of delays that have gone on for a year, with high-ranking Hungarian officials saying they support Sweden’s membership while also making vague demands from Stockholm as a condition for approval.
French President Emmanuel Macron called on Turkey and Hungary to quickly approve Sweden’s NATO accession.
“It’s now time ... to allow Sweden to attend the Vilnius summit as an ally,” Macron said in a joint declaration with Stoltenberg ahead of a working meeting Wednesday in Paris. “Now, more than ever, is the time to make decisions that will ensure the unity and stability of the continent.”
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Associated Press writers Justin Spike in Budapest, Sylvia Corbet in Paris and Robert Badendiek in Istanbul contributed to this report.
