Sweden continues the dialogue with Turkey, but no progress has been communicated.
According to transparent sources, the government does not understand what President Erdogan wants to achieve with the blockade.
– Turkey wants some of this, but they only know what it is, says a source.
The Swedish government continues talks with Turkey to get the country to break the NATO blockade. Most recently yesterday, Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist (S) met Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in Brussels.
He did not want to comment on what was said:
– A process is underway with Turkey, we will return when that process is completed, the Minister of Defense told Ekot.
Want to pull out on the process
Despite the fact that Turkey has presented public demands on Sweden, in the media as well as on the Turkish government’s website, the Swedish government does not understand what Turkey’s purpose is in blocking the application.
– Turkey wants something out of this, but they only know what it is, they have not wanted to say it yet, says a source with insight.
The source says that negotiations are still ongoing and that there is not much to do before the negotiations are completed.
– It can take a long time and it can take a short time.
Another source says it is difficult to understand President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s demands because several items on the country’s list are incorrect. One theory is that the president wants to delay the process until after Turkey has held elections in January next year, this because the NATO blockade is gaining momentum in public opinion. Another theory is that he wants to put pressure on the United States in order to buy fighter jets from the Americans.
The fighter jets mentioned in the context are the F-35, which Turkey was blocked by the United States from buying because the country has purchased a Russian air defense system that the Americans fear may collect information about the fighter jet.
Today, however, leading US defense politicians announced that the F-35 will not be sold in exchange for Swedish and Finnish NATO membership.
“Turkey will not return to the F-35 program,” said Adam Smith, chairman of the House of Representatives’ Defense Committee. Breaking Defense.
Smith, however, said that the matter could be resolved by allowing Turkey to buy another type of weapon.
Important with security insurance
Magdalena Andersson does not want to comment on whether the government has understood what Turkey wants.
– We conduct our talks directly with Turkey, she says.
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin recently said that it was very important that the problems with Turkey were resolved before the NATO summit in Madrid, which begins on 28 June. Otherwise, the situation risks getting stuck.
Do you share that image?
– Of course, we work as quickly as possible to solve the issues that exist, with that said, this can take some time and therefore it has been important for me to work with getting security insurance from other NATO countries, says Magdalena Andersson .