On Tuesday, Billström had a separate meeting with his Turkish colleague Hakan Fidan in connection with the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels. – There he said that he hopes that Sweden will be able to become a member within a couple of weeks, says Billström to the Swedish press corps on site afterwards. However, if that means exactly two weeks or even longer, he does not want to go into it. – I don’t define weeks. I’m just saying what the Turkish foreign minister said. He said member, says Billström. Turkey and Hungary are still the only two NATO countries that have not yet finally approved Sweden’s membership. Hungary stands firm In the talks with Billström, Fidan did not go into what will happen in the coming weeks, for example in the Turkish parliament. The ministers also did not go into whether, for example, the go-ahead from the US is first needed for aircraft deliveries to Turkey or something else. – But the fact that the Turkish foreign minister expresses this opinion that he hopes it will be done within the next few weeks is of course a message that we welcome. But it remains to be seen whether this will really be the case, says Billström. Regarding Hungary’s approval of Swedish membership, Billström received the same message as before in a direct question to Hungarian colleague Peter Szijjarto. – The clear message was that “we stand by our word, we will not be the last to ratify Sweden”, says Billström. Before the turn of the year? If this means that Sweden can be a member of NATO already before Christmas or at least before the turn of the year, Billström does not dare to speculate. that it’s about seeing things actually happen before claiming any victories in advance. The Swedish government will not do that, says the foreign minister in Brussels.
t4-general