Turkey's Requests Are Judged Too Much For NATO Applications, Swedish PM: They Want Things We Can't Provide

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received a visit from Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. (Source: Presidency of The Republic of Turkey)

JAKARTA - Sweden believes Turkey will agree to its application to join the NATO military alliance (North Atlantic Defense Pact), but will not meet all the conditions that Ankara has set for its support, the Swedish Prime Minister said on Sunday.

"Turkey both said we did what we said we would do. But they also said they wanted things we couldn't or didn't want to give them", Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a think-tank conference. defense tanks in Sweden reported to Reuters on January 9.

Finland and Sweden signed a three-way agreement with Turkey in 2022, which aims to overcome Ankara's objections to agreeing to membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

They applied in May to join NATO in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But Turkey objected and accused the countries of harboring militants, including from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.

At Sunday's news conference, PM Kristersson said demands Sweden could not or did not want to comply with were outside the scope of the three-way memorandum.

"From time to time, Turkey mentions individuals they want to see extradited from Sweden. For that I have said, the matter is handled within Swedish law", he said.

Ankara has expressed disappointment with a decision late last year by Sweden's top court to halt a request for the extradition of a journalist suspected of having ties to Islamic cleric Fetullah Gulen, whom Turkey blames for the attempted coup.