Sweden PM ready to restart discussions with Turkey over NATO bid

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said he was ready to restart the stalled negotiations with Turkey over its NATO bid. Turkey is one of the two remaining NATO countries that have yet to ratify Sweden and Finland’s NATO accession, with Ankara demanding security guarantees.

Kristersson said he was ready to restart the talks with Ankara over its bid to join the NATO alliance Tuesday during his visit to Estonia. Kristersson said the preconditions for restarting the discussions were good but noted that with Turkey gearing up for an election in May, it was understandable that Ankara would be more focused on domestic policy for now.

“The first thing we need to do is calm down the situation. It is hard to have good talks when things are literally burning around you,” Kristersson told a news conference. “As soon as they are prepared, we are obviously prepared.”

Trilateral talks between Turkey, Finland, and Sweden were suspended in January following a protest in Stockholm near the Turkish embassy where a far-right politician burned a copy of the Koran drawing Ankara’s ire. Last week, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara was looking positively at Finland’s application but not at Sweden’s over the recent protests.

Finnish President Saulli Niinisto said that he hoped Finland and Sweden would soon become NATO members during a joint news conference in Helsinki with the visiting Canadian governor general. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said the wider Baltic region would benefit from Sweden and Finland becoming part of the NATO alliance.

“For the security of our region, it would be better if both countries joined,” said Kallas.

On Monday, the US Embassy in Sweden warned Americans in the country of possible retaliatory attacks in response to the protests and the burning of the Koran. The embassy warned Americans in Sweden to avoid crowds and keep a low profile. The Swedish embassy in Turkey also advised its citizens in the country to avoid crowds and demonstrations.

Sweden’s security service spokesperson Adam Samara said the agency was aware of the US warning, but the service’s own assessment of the situation was that the threat of possible retaliation is still “elevated” at level three on a five-level scale.