In the small town of Sälen in western Sweden, politicians, the military and experts come together every year for the "National Conference".

The debate will focus on security and defense policy, this year - until this Tuesday - above all on the consequences of the Russian war of aggression and Sweden's application for NATO membership.

Julian Staib

Political correspondent for northern Germany and Scandinavia based in Hamburg.

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The country already provided this together with Finland in May 2022.

However, the countries are not yet members of NATO.

Hungary and Turkey have not yet ratified the motions.

Stockholm tried for a long time

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had announced that Parliament would shortly approve the two countries' NATO accession.

Ankara, on the other hand, ties its approval to very far-reaching measures that take Turkey's security needs into account, including the extradition of "terrorists in exile".

In Stockholm, efforts were made to respond to Ankara for a long time: Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson visited the Turkish President shortly after taking office;

a memorandum was signed in June in which Sweden and Finland undertake, among other things, to implement "measures" in the interests of Turkey's security interests;

the Swedish parliament also voted in favor of controversial constitutional amendments which, among other things, are intended to provide better protection against espionage and which were rated as concessions.

Now, for the first time, Kristersson has rejected Turkey's demands.

Turkey has confirmed that "we did what we said, but she also says she wants things that we cannot or do not want to give her," said Kristersson in Sälen on Sunday.

He did not say what claims he was referring to.

Presumably, it should be about the extradition requests.

Turkish media close to the government have published lists of people whose extradition the government is demanding, arguing that they are members of the Gülen movement or the terrorist organization PKK.

However, almost everyone on the list has a permanent residence permit in Sweden or even Swedish citizenship.

Magnus Petersson, Professor of International Relations at Stockholm University, said Kristersson's comments were an expression of Sweden's growing impatience.

For the first time, the Prime Minister made the Swedish restrictions publicly clear.

Kristersson's words reflect growing frustration within the Swedish government over Ankara's actions, agrees Kjell Engelbrekt, a professor at the Swedish University of Defence.

However, he still sees room for negotiation.

Engelbrekt says there are approaches or even solutions on several points in the memorandum between Turkey, Finland and Sweden.

Deliveries probably the main obstacle

Thus the question of the abolition of arms embargoes was solved;

what is helpful in the memorandum's point regarding dealing with extremist organizations such as the PKK is that the right-wing Swedish government is pursuing a much clearer distance course than previous Swedish governments.

Engelbrekt sees an obstacle in the obligation of the three states to take action against disinformation.

There are serious differences between Turkey and Sweden, which has had press rights since 1766, especially when it comes to freedom of the press.

However, according to Engelbrekt, the main obstacle is still the issue of extradition to terrorist suspects.

"The Swedish government is neither willing nor able to undermine its own constitution," says Engelbrekt.

At this point, Sweden will not move.

If Turkey doesn't accept that, it will lead to a crisis with the other democratic NATO members, Engelbrekt said.

Notwithstanding the dissent with Turkey, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expects Sweden and Finland to join the defense alliance this year.

"Now the time has come," Stoltenberg told the Aftonbladet newspaper on Monday.

Sweden has fulfilled the agreement.

As a result of the application for NATO membership, Sweden is already a "safer country", several NATO countries have given security guarantees for the country, and NATO has also increased its presence in the region.

It is "unimaginable" that Sweden is under threat and NATO is not responding, Stoltenberg said.