Sweden implements agreement to join NATO

A North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) reported this Sunday, the 4th, that the Sweden implemented all the measures that were agreed with the Türkiye to join the organization in the coming weeks. In Istanbul, after a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, referring to Sweden’s early entry into the Alliance, that “we still have time to achieve this at the allies’ summit” in Vilnius in the next July 11th and 12th. “What we saw is that Sweden implemented the agreement that President Erdogan negotiated with Sweden and Finland at the Madrid (NATO) summit (in June 2022),” explained Stoltenberg. “Since then, Sweden has amended its Constitution, strengthened anti-terrorist legislation, lifted its arms embargo. It is now as easy to export military equipment from Sweden to Turkey as it is to any other NATO ally,” he commented. “And we’ve also seen that Finland, Sweden and Turkey are now working much more closely together when it comes to exchanging information and intelligence to support counter-terrorism efforts,” concluded the NATO Secretary General. Finland joined NATO in early April, while neighboring Sweden is still awaiting approval from Turkey and Hungary. To promote Sweden’s entry into NATO, representatives of Turkey, Finland and Sweden will meet on the 12th, added Stoltenberg. Finland and Sweden, both situated in northern Europe and hitherto neutral countries, applied to join the Atlantic Alliance last year in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

*With information from EFE.