VILNIUS — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday agreed to drop his resistance to Sweden joining the NATO alliance and to submit the ratification to the Turkish parliament “as soon as possible,” the alliance’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters.
“Sweden will become a full member of the alliance,” Stoltenberg said ahead of a summit of NATO leaders starting Tuesday.
He said Erdoğan had given a “clear commitment” to move on Sweden’s accession.
The Turkish’s leader’s change of position came after a meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Stoltenberg.
In a joint statement following the talks, Turkey, Sweden and NATO underlined that Stockholm had changed laws, expanded counter-terrorism cooperation against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and restarted arms exports to Turkey.
Ankara and Stockholm also agreed to create a “new bilateral Security Compact” and that Sweden will present a “roadmap as the basis of its continued fight against terrorism in all its forms,” the statement said.
As part of the deal, Stoltenberg has also agreed to create a new post of “Special Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism” at NATO.
The announcement comes after over a year of wrangling to get Turkey and Hungary to sign off on admitting Sweden and Finland into the alliance, with NATO leaders publicly and privately lobbying the Turkish leader to expand the alliance roster.
Sweden and Finland both ditched their traditional neutrality in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and asked to join the alliance in May 2022.
The accession of the two countries — which have long been close partners of the Western alliance — was easily approved by most NATO members, with Turkey holding out. Finland joined in April following approval by Turkey’s parliament in March.
But Sweden proved to be a thornier problem, with Erdoğan denouncing the presence of Kurdish groups in Sweden. Relations were also inflamed when protesters in Sweden burned copies of the Quran.
Earlier on Monday, Erdoğan linked a change of position on Sweden to a revival of his country’s moribund effort to join the European Union. The recently re-elected Turkish president also met with European Council President Charles Michel on Monday evening.
The Council leader described the session as a “good meeting,” tweeting that the two “explored opportunities ahead to bring” the EU’s cooperation with Turkey “back to the forefront & re-energise our relations.”
Sweden promised to “actively support efforts to reinvigorate” Turkey’s EU membership bid in a seven-point agreement with Ankara. Stockholm also agreed it will not support other Kurdish militant groups and to boost economic cooperation with Turkey.
The next step, according to the agreement, is that Turkey “will transmit the Accession Protocol for Sweden to the Grand National Assembly, and work closely with the Assembly to ensure ratification.”
Although Hungary has also refused to back Sweden’s NATO bid, Stoltenberg noted that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had promised that his country would not be the last holdout against Sweden’s membership.
Sweden has one of the most capable militaries in Europe and its entry into NATO together with Finland will solidify the alliance’s control of the Baltic Sea.
The agreement on the night before the summit’s official program starts removes a major headache for Stoltenberg and the alliance’s leaders, who are also dealing with Ukrainian demands that Kyiv be given a clear path to membership.
Opinions across NATO differ on how fast Ukraine could become a member. Those disagreements will likely be front and center on Wednesday when U.S. President Joe Biden holds one-on-one talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Jacopo Barigazzi, Jonathan Lemire, Paul McLeary and Alexander Ward contributed reporting.
