Turkey agreed on Monday to clear the way for Sweden to join Nato, a sudden reversal that allows the alliance to project an image of unity and expansion on the eve of a critical summit intended to prepare for what could be a long war to repel Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sweden’s imminent accession was a victory for Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of Nato since 2014, who agreed last week to stay on another year to help guide a war effort in which Nato is a noncombatant, but a critical supplier of arms and training. It followed intense pressure on Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, particularly from President Biden, who called the Turkish leader while on his way to Europe on Sunday.
Biden, just hours after landing in Lithuania ahead of the opening of the summit Tuesday morning, celebrated the moment, saying in a statement that he was “ready to work with President Erdogan and Turkey on enhancing defence and deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic area”.
The statement was widely interpreted as an indication that the US would sell Turkey the F-16 fighters and other armaments it demanded. And Erdogan’s decision came just hours after he said the EU should first advance his country’s bid to join the EU bloc before he would clear the path for Nato.
American officials offered no details late on Monday.
The reversal of Turkey’s objections will make Biden’s time at the summit considerably easier, taking one major problem off the agenda, and enabling him to say that Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has got exactly what he did not want: an expanded, more directed Nato alliance that now also includes Finland.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine was a shock to Finland and Sweden, with long histories of military non-alignment, pushing both countries to seek membership in Nato. But membership in the EU alone was not security enough, both countries decided.
Their membership essentially turns the Baltic Sea into a Nato-dominated waterway, one that enhances it’s ability to protect its most vulnerable members: the Baltic nations.
New York Times News Service
