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After the support for Sweden, Turkey expects concrete steps for EU membership

2023-07-11 16:25:15, Kosova & Bota CNA

Turkey expects to revive a raft of European Union reforms after Ankara approves Sweden's NATO membership, a senior Turkish official told Reuters news agency on Tuesday.

Turkey, with this move and request, seeks to enter a new period of improved ties with the West.

Ankara expects to start making concrete progress from the European Union on issues such as visa-free travel, as well as closing some chapters on EU accession, the official said, adding that the West should support Turkey in its financial needs. .

Turkey will develop a "reasonable" relationship with the United States and expects a quick resolution of some problems, although all issues may not be resolved, the official said.

However, he said Ankara will not damage its relations with Russia as the country moves closer to the West.

Turkey's membership talks resumed in 2005 under Erdogan's first term as prime minister.

Ankara's bid to join the EU has been frozen for years.

Member states voted to suspend talks on the issue in 2016 after Erdogan's government cracked down on opponents following a failed coup attempt the same year.

The bloc depends on the help of the NATO ally, Ankara, especially for the detention of illegal immigrants.

Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on July 10 agreed to support Sweden's membership in NATO, although earlier in the day, he made Sweden's acceptance conditional on Turkey's membership in the European Union.

In the statement issued after the tripartite meeting with NATO, it was said that Turkey and Sweden will work closely "on counter-terrorism coordination" and strengthen bilateral trade relations.

"Sweden will actively support efforts to revive Turkey's EU accession process, including the modernization of the EU-Turkey customs union and visa liberalization," the statement said.

The American president, Joe Biden, has welcomed the agreement between Ankara and Stockholm.

For a country to become a member of NATO, all 32 countries must ratify the accession protocols in their parliaments. In the case of Sweden, in addition to Turkey, Hungary has not ratified the protocol for Stockholm to become part of the alliance.

Following the launch of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership in May 2022.

Finland became a member of the alliance in April 2023.

The agreement between Sweden and Turkey came a day before the start of the two-day NATO summit, which will be held in Vilnius, Lithuania. This summit is expected to be dominated by the war in Ukraine and the relations that the alliance will have in the future with Kiev.

Despite the fact that Ukraine wants NATO to take steps towards the membership of Kiev in the alliance, Stoltenberg has said that he will not send an invitation to Ukraine for membership, as long as the war with Russia continues, he has asked for an easing of the procedures./ REL