President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said on Monday that the EU should open the way for Turkey to join the bloc before Turkey allows Sweden to join Nato, adding a surprising new condition that could further stall the military alliance’s efforts to expand.

Erdogan’s latest demand came a day before the opening of Nato’s two-day annual summit, where leaders, including President Biden, had hoped to secure unanimous approval from member states to allow Sweden to become the 32nd member.

That outcome now appears increasingly unlikely, with Erdogan posing the main obstacle to Sweden’s membership.

“First, clear the way for Turkey in the EU, then we will clear the way for Sweden as we did for Finland,” Erdogan told reporters before travelling to the Nato summit.

It was not immediately clear how leaders of the EU or Nato would respond to the new demand, especially since they are separate organisations with many overlapping members but different purposes. Turkey applied to join the EU in 1987, but the process has proceeded slowly, with almost no progress since 2016.

Sweden applied to join Nato last year, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

New York Times News Service