Wednesday, October 23

Turkish president backs Sweden’s entry to NATO, head of army alliance says

The president of Turkey has agreed that Sweden ought to be allowed to affix NATO, the pinnacle of the army alliance has mentioned.

Jens Stoltenberg mentioned Recep Tayyip Erdogan had agreed to ship Sweden’s accession protocol to the Turkish parliament “as soon as possible”.

At the beginning of a NATO summit in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, the alliance mentioned that for the reason that final summit Sweden and Turkey had “worked closely together to address Turkey’s legitimate security concerns”.

It added: “As part of that process, Sweden has amended its constitution, changed its laws, significantly expanded its counter- terrorism cooperation against the PKK (Kurdish political organisation), and resumed arms exports to Turkey.”

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly mentioned it was in “everyone’s interest for Sweden to join”.

He added: “Their accession makes us all safer. The UK welcomes the steps Turkey has taken today to bring this closer.”

Sweden has been attempting to affix NATO since final 12 months after ending a historic coverage of neutrality within the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Content Source: information.sky.com