Türkiye to revisit discussion of Sweden's NATO bid in June - presidential spox

In the first half of June, Türkiye and Sweden will hold the next round of talks regarding the approval of Sweden's application to join NATO.

This was stated in an interview with the Anadolu news agency by Ibrahim Kalin, the adviser to the Turkish president.

"After our parliament approved Finland's NATO membership application, we agreed to hold the next meeting with Sweden in the first or second week of June," Kalin said.

According to him, such scheduling is due to the entry into force of a new law on the fight against terrorism in Sweden. "We expect that after this, the process (of Sweden's fulfillment of Turkish requirements for NATO membership - ed.) will pace up. However, if there are other administrative steps that they can take before June 1, it could speed up the process," said the advisor to the Turkish president.

As reported, after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, neutral Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO. At the Madrid Summit in June 2022, countries received invitations to join the Alliance from all 30 members. A Trilateral Memorandum was signed in Madrid, which reflected Türkiye’s concern about the countries’ efforts in fighting terrorism. Recently, Türkiye has approved Finland's entry bid, but not Sweden’s.