Turkey would consider green-lighting Sweden’s application to join NATO in exchange for progress on its own bid to join the EU, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared Monday ahead of a key summit of alliance members.
“First, pave the way for Turkey in the European Union, and then let us pave the way for Sweden, just as we paved the way for Finland,” the Turkish leader said in a speech Monday at Istanbul’s Atatürk airport, before departing for the NATO summit in Vilnius.
At the same time, Erdoğan added, he will use the summit to “repeat our call to the allies who impose sanctions and restrictions on Turkey to quickly turn back from this mistake.”
“We believe that ending the war with a just and lasting peace as soon as possible will further facilitate Ukraine’s NATO membership process,” he went on.
In a bilateral call with U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday night, the Turkish president called for EU member countries to send a “clear and strong message” in support of Ankara’s accession to the 27-member bloc.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected Erdogan’s demand that Sweden’s NATO accession be linked to Turkey’s EU membership.
“That’s a question that is not related to the other issue, and therefore I think this should not be seen as a related matter,” he said Monday in Berlin.
Turkey was granted EU candidate status in 1999, but progress has since stalled with Brussels warning Ankara has dragged its feet on key reforms to the judiciary and the power of the president’s office in recent years.
Hans von der Burchard contributed reporting from Berlin.
