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Turkey drops objections to Sweden joining Nato

Turkey has dropped its objections to Sweden and Finland joining Nato, paving the way for the two Nordic nations to join the North Atlantic defence alliance.

Published: 28 June 2022 21:03 CEST
Turkey drops objections to Sweden joining Nato
Turkey has dropped its objection to Sweden joining Nato Photo: Henrik Montgomery / TT / kod 10060

“We have reached an agreement between Sweden, Turkey and Finland, which means that Turkey now accepts that we will be granted invitee status in Nato. That’s important, as it will improve Sweden’s security,” Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said after a meeting in Madrid with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“It was a very long meeting and [Finland’s President] Sauli Niinistö and I could describe all the measures we in Sweden have taken regarding terrorism legislation in recent years, and now on July 1st we are tightening that legislation significantly,” Andersson added.

The process of joining Nato requires the approval of all 30 existing members. Turkey had set out a string of demands, including the extradition of what it claims are Kurdish terrorists living in Sweden and a relaxation of Sweden’s ban on selling arms to Turkey. 

In a press release, Nato said that the foreign ministers of Turkey, Sweden and Finland had all signed a trilateral memorandum (find copy here) which addressed “Türkiye’s legitimate security concerns”. 

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Nato leaders would as a result now be able to issue a formal invitation to Sweden and Finland to join the alliance. 

“I’m pleased to announce that we now have an agreement that paves the way for Finland and Sweden to join Nato. Turkey, Finland and Sweden have signed a memorandum that addresses Turkey’s concerns, including around arms exports,
and the fight against terrorism,” he said. 

As aspiring Nato members, he added, Finland and Sweden would not give support to the PYD, the Democratic Union Party of Syria, which runs the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, and would not support the Gülen movement. 

The agreement commits Sweden and Finland to not supporting the PYD, but only classes the PKK as a terrorist organisation. Turkey has previously insisted on describing the PKK/PYD as a single entity. 

The deal also covers the export of Swedish weapons to Turkey. Sweden has not exported weapons to Turkey in recent years, a decision Turkey interprets as an arms embargo. 

“Turkey, Finland and Sweden confirm that there are no national arms embargoes between them. Sweden is changing its national regulatory framework for arms exports in relation to Nato allies,” the document reads. “In future, defence exports from Finland and Sweden will be conducted in accordance with Alliance solidarity and the letter and spirit of Article 3 of the Washington Treaty.”

“If we become Nato members, of course this will have repercussions on how we interpret Swedish weapons exports legislation,” Andersson conceded at the press conference.  

According to Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter newspaper, Säpo, Sweden’s security police, has drawn up a list of “at least ten” people living in Sweden with links to the Kurdish PKK terror organisation, who can be extradited to Turkey. 

According to the newspaper’s government source, two people with PKK links have already been extradited to Turkey this year, and more could follow.

However, Niinistö stressed to reporters at the press conference that the trilateral deal does not name any individuals who Turkey wants extradited. Instead the agreement commits Sweden and Finland to handling extradition requests “expeditiously and thoroughly”. 

Sweden’s foreign minister, Ann Linde, sent out a celebratory tweet shortly after the announcement. 

She said that the two countries would then start formal accession talks in Brussels next week after which Sweden would officially become a Nato invitee. 

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NORTHVOLT

Migrant workers let go from troubled Northvolt on their first day at work

Migrant workers were let go on their first day on the job at Northvolt this week, reports Sweden's public radio broadcaster.

Published: 20 September 2024 08:30 CEST
Migrant workers let go from troubled Northvolt on their first day at work

The struggling Swedish battery producer earlier this month warned that it would have to cut jobs as a result of its economic crisis.

This week, an undisclosed number of migrant workers were let go before the formal round of layoffs has even started, reports Sveriges Radio’s news programme, Ekot.

FOR MEMBERS:

“They’ve left a whole life behind to invest in a future here. I would like Northvolt to answer the question of how they’re going to look after these people,” Lena Lundgren, local coordinator for the IF Metall metalworkers’ union, told Ekot.

Northvolt writes in an email to Ekot that they are in contact with the people affected to help them.

Layoffs are usually regulated according to a fairly strict process in Sweden, but the rules for dismissing people are much more relaxed when it comes to the probationary period (usually the first six months). Unlike those with permanent contracts, the reasons for dismissal don’t have to be justified or documented as they would for permanent employees, and employers don’t have to give as much notice.

Earlier in September, Northvolt said it had not yet made any final decisions on how many jobs the company might make redundant, but that it was going to have to make “difficult decisions on the size of our workforce” in order to meet its objective of focusing on large-scale cell manufacturing.

It said it had launched talks with trade unions to minimise the number of redundancies.

“As difficult as this will be, focusing on what is our core business paves the way for us to build a strong long-term foundation for growth that contributes to the Western ambitions to establish a homegrown battery industry,” Northvolt CEO and co-founded Peter Carlsson said at the time.

  • Do you know more about the situation at Northvolt? Email The Local’s editor at emma.lofgren@thelocal.com to share your story with us. You can be anonymous in any article we write and we will never disclose your identity against your wishes

Northvolt is the latest in a series of Swedish tech giants to struggle with the economic pressure of the past few years.

Swedish telecoms equipment company Ericsson said earlier this year it was cutting 8.6 percent of its Swedish workforce.

In early August, the Swedish Labour Ministry announced that the country was facing its highest unemployment rate in a decade, excluding the pandemic period.

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