Turkey agrees to Sweden's request to join NATO, with conditions

After a long wait, the Turkish President has agreed to Sweden's request to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, with the condition that the Swedish request be presented to the Turkish parliament. 

 

The Turkish approval came after a trilateral meeting between the NATO Secretary General, the Turkish President, and the Swedish Prime Minister just hours before the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital started. 

 

Erdogan stated that he would support Sweden's membership in NATO if the European Union restarted negotiations for Turkey's accession to the EU. 

 

It is worth noting that Turkey was obstructing Sweden's membership in the alliance due to its housing of Kurdish activists that Ankara considers terrorists. 

 

It appears that Turkey's accession to the European Union will be reactivated after European Council President Charles Michel agreed with Erdogan to seek closer cooperation between them.
However, Russia did not take kindly to Sweden joining NATO and warned that it would have negative consequences. 

 

The approval of Sweden's entry into the Atlantic Alliance was met with a delay in the process of Ukraine joining the alliance, which the Secretary-General said the leaders agreed to call for Ukraine to join the bloc when the conditions were met. 

 

NATO's reluctance to accept Ukraine's membership was considered by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is attending the NATO summit, as encouraging Russian terrorism.

Therefore, with Sweden joining, the number of NATO members will decrease from thirty-one to thirty-two.