New episode in the diplomatic showdown between Stockholm and Ankara over Sweden's entry into NATO.
"Turkey also confirms that we have done what we said we would do, but it also says that it wants things that we cannot and do not want to give it," Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said. discussing his country's accession process to the Atlantic Alliance during a conference on defense and security in the presence of NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
“We are convinced that Turkey will make a decision, we just don't know when,” he said before adding: “The decision is in Turkey's camp”.
At the end of December, Ankara had noted "positive measures" taken by Stockholm, but called for "other important steps" to remove its objections to Sweden's entry into NATO, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut had then indicated. Cavusoglu.
These statements came a few days after the Swedish Supreme Court refused to extradite journalist Bülent Kenes, requested by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson made one of his very first international trips to Ankara in early November to try to lift the Turkish veto.
Only the Turkish and Hungarian parliaments have not ratified the entry of Sweden, as well as Finland, into NATO.
On the sidelines of Sunday's conference, the head of Finnish diplomacy reaffirmed that his country would enter the Atlantic Alliance at the same time as its neighbor.
“Finland is not in such a rush to join NATO that we cannot wait for Sweden to get the green light,” Pekka Haavisto told the press.
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