Sweden has expressed its readiness to supply arms to Turkey in its bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the Strategic Products Inspection Authority has announced its approval to export arms to Turkey, a NATO member, for the first time since 2019.
Lifting arms export restrictions to Ankara is one of Turkey's conditions for Sweden's accession to NATO.
Sweden and Finland applied to join the Western military alliance in mid-May in response to Russia's war against Ukraine, and Turkey objected to their accession, referring to Sweden and Finland's support for "terrorist organizations."
The Strategic Products Inspection Department said in a statement that Sweden's candidacy to join NATO, announced with neighboring Finland's candidacy last May, "significantly strengthens the foundations of defense and security policy to allow the export of military equipment to other member states, including Turkey."
Sweden had banned these exports to Turkey in 2019 after a Turkish operation in northern Syria against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The same Swedish authority said that during the third quarter of the year it allowed the export of products of a military nature to Turkey related to "electronic equipment", "software" and "technical support".
In order for Sweden and Finland to become members of NATO, the 30 NATO member states must ratify their requests unanimously, and 28 countries have ratified so far, and the Turkish and Hungarian parliaments are the only ones that have not yet ratified definitively.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said when Sweden and Finland applied to join the alliance that he did not want to see a repeat of the same mistake made when Greece joined, and accused Stockholm and Helsinki of "harboring terrorists from the Kurdistan Workers' Party", which Turkey, the European Union and the United States consider to be Terrorist Organisation.
Sweden, Finland and Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding last June regarding Ankara's support for the two countries' accession, but Ankara threatened to block the move again if it did not implement its conditions, especially the extradition of wanted persons in the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and considering the party a terrorist organization.
The two capitals also pledged not to support other armed groups opposed to Ankara, including the Syrian Democratic Forces in northern Syria that are allied with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).