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On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan added an unexpected additional requirement that might further impede the military alliance’s aspirations to grow: before Sweden is allowed to join NATO, the European Union should open the door for Turkey to join.
The most recent demand from Mr. Erdogan came a day before the start of the two-day annual summit of NATO, whose officials, including President Biden, had hoped to win the support of all member states to allow Sweden to become the organization’s 32nd member.
Given that Mr. Erdogan is the biggest barrier to Sweden’s admission, that conclusion suddenly seems less likely.
“First, clear the way for Turkey in the European Union, then we will clear the way for Sweden as we did for Finland,” Mr. Erdogan told reporters before traveling to the NATO summit.
The European Union and NATO are separate organizations with numerous overlapping members but very different goals, so it is unlikely that their leaders will react favorably. Turkey first applied to join the EU in 1987, but there hasn’t been much progress since 2016 when the European Parliament opted to halt accession negotiations while denouncing a massive crackdown on political opponents by the Turkish government following a failed coup against Mr. Erdogan.
Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of NATO, stated on Monday that he supports Turkey’s desire to join the EU but that this was not one of the requirements outlined by representatives from Turkey, Sweden, and Finland during a NATO summit in Madrid last year.
“We need to remember that what we agreed in Madrid was a specific list of conditions that Sweden has to meet to be a full member of the alliance, and Sweden has met these conditions,” Mr. Stoltenberg told reporters in Lithuania.
The two crises shouldn’t be related, according to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose country is a part of both NATO and the European Union.
“Sweden meets all the requirements for NATO membership,” Mr. Scholz told reporters in Berlin. “The other question is one that is unrelated, and so I don’t think it should be taken as a related issue.”
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, Sweden submitted an application to join NATO. The requirement that all NATO members consent to the admission of new members has given Mr. Erdogan significant clout to demand concessions.
Pro-Kurdish activists and members of a religious organization that Turkey has charged with orchestrating the 2016 coup attempt are among the dissidents Turkey has accused Sweden of harboring in a tolerant environment.
Aiming to satisfy Turkey’s demands, Sweden has recently amended its Constitution, passed new anti-terrorism legislation, and agreed to extradite a number of Turks who are facing criminal charges there. However, Swedish courts have rejected earlier extradition requests, and Swedish authorities have asserted that they cannot circumvent their nation’s protections for free speech.
