Sweden says is confident that Turkey will approve its NATO application
(VOVWORLD) - Sweden is confident that Turkey will approve its application to join the NATO military alliance, but will not meet all the conditions Ankara has set for its support, Sweden's prime minister said on Sunday.
 Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. (Photo: Internet) |
Finland and Sweden signed a three-way agreement with Turkey last year aimed at overcoming Ankara's objections to their membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
They applied in May to join NATO following the Russia-Ukraine but Turkey objected and accused the countries of harbouring militants, including from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.
At a news conference later on Sunday, Kristersson said the demands that Sweden could not or did not want to fulfil were outside the scope of the three-way memorandum.
Ankara expressed disappointment with a decision late last year from Sweden's top court to stop a request to extradite a journalist with alleged links to Islamic scholar Fetullah Gulen, blamed by Turkey for an attempted coup.