Last minute: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that Sweden has fulfilled its obligations to become a member of NATO and said, “I met with Erdogan. He said that the meeting was very positive.”
WHAT DID ERDOGAN SAY?
Erdogan noted the following regarding his meeting with Stoltenberg: “What we told him was this: If you expect us to respond to Sweden’s expectations, first of all, Sweden must destroy what this terrorist organization has done. While Stoltenberg was expressing these to us, just at that moment. Unfortunately, terrorists were demonstrating in the streets again in Sweden. Later, our İbrahim Bey sent those images to his addressee, saying, ‘Stoltenberg and our President are meeting with Stoltenberg right now, but terrorists are demonstrating in Sweden again.’ In Vilnius, let’s say, ‘Okay, you really put this thing right and you didn’t give these terrorists the opportunity to demonstrate on the streets. So let’s approach it with good intentions.’ What is this? What does law enforcement do? What the law enforcement needs to do is to stop them.
SWEDEN STATEMENT FROM THE COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT
In the statement made by the Directorate of Communications regarding the fourth meeting of the Permanent Joint Mechanism, it was stated that “The level of progress made in the implementation of the recorded commitments was discussed”.
The fourth meeting of the Permanent Joint Mechanism, established within the framework of the Tripartite Memorandum signed on 28 June 2022 by Turkey, Finland and Sweden on the margins of the NATO Madrid Summit, was held on 14 June 2023 in Ankara.
The delegation headed by the Chief Advisor to the President, Ambassador Akif Çağatay Kılıç and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Burak Akçapar, also included representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior, National Defense and Justice, and the National Intelligence Organization.
In the statement made by the Directorate of Communications regarding the meeting, “At the meeting, steps taken by Sweden in the context of the commitments included in the Tripartite Memorandum were discussed. The reflections of the measures taken in the fight against terrorism, especially the new legislation that came into force on 1 June 2023 in this country, on the activities of terrorist organizations in Sweden were discussed on the basis of concrete examples. In this context, the level of progress made in realizing the commitments recorded in the Tripartite Memorandum was discussed. Participants emphasized the importance of the Permanent Joint Mechanism and agreed to continue working on the next concrete steps. The fact that Finland, which joined NATO on April 4, 2023, continues to attend the meetings of this mechanism, which was designed permanently at the beginning of the process, is also important in terms of confirming that the fight against terrorist organizations will continue after NATO membership.