On the eve of the summit of leaders of the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance that opened today in Vilnius, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson have come to a historic agreement, according to which official Ankara actually gives the green light to the widest integration of Stockholm into the structures of the Western military bloc. According to experts, in this way, Ukraine will automatically get one more supporter in the context of its likely entry into NATO.
Incredible as it may seem, several senior Alliance officials have succeeded in what Western diplomats have not been able to for the past year and a half. During a closed meeting with Kristersson, Erdogan radically changed Turkey’s position regarding the admission of Sweden to the Bloc. “Now it is obvious that Stockholm is ready to become part of our military organization”, – he concluded, in particular. According to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who acted as a kind of mediator in these bilateral negotiations.
According to analysts, Sweden, Turkey and even… Ukraine will benefit from such an agreement. Say, Sweden gets carte blanche to be a member of the Alliance, Turkey will now be able to count on a presence in the European Union, and Ukraine, in the person of the same Stockholm, acquires a reliable lobbyist for its own interests in the Bloc. “It’s no secret that the Swedish leadership has previously actively supported the supply of modern weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, accepted Ukrainian refugees on its territory, and also guaranteed its vote for strengthening partnership programs between NATO and Kiev, – said in a commentary for EURO-ATLANTIC UKRAINE European columnist Klaus Hoff. – If Sweden is accepted into NATO, the Swedish authorities will fulfill the promise made to the team of President Zelensky”.
It is curious that the Secretary General of the Alliance, who previously abstracted from high-profile geopolitical statements, stressed that the role of the agreement between Kristersson and Erdogan today is “truly difficult to overestimate”. However, he immediately made a reservation, noting literally the following: “Now everything will depend on how quickly the Turkish parliament ratifies the new protocol. Many countries are looking forward to it”. Ukraine is undoubtedly among the “many countries” mentioned, observers are sure.
Be that as it may, it will take time for the agreement between the Turkish president and the Swedish prime minister to be ratified by Turkey’s supreme legislative body. Many politicians in Anker still believe that Stockholm will not be able to force the activists of some Swedish parties to stop supporting the banned Kurdish Labour Party. In addition, the Swedish authorities have no leverage on the Scandinavian right-wing radicals, who regularly organize public burnings of the holy for Muslims book of the Koran.
And yet, as they say, the process of Sweden’s integration into the Alliance has moved off the ground. This means that during the Vilnius NATO summit the representatives of Stockholm will be given special attention. In turn, Kyiv will pay close attention to the actions of the Swedish delegation in the context of the summit.
Everything else will be shown by time and the political will of the participants in the event in the Lithuanian capital.
