Turkey lifts objections to Sweden and Finland joining Nato

Turkey has at the last-minute political posturing agreed to lift its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining Nato, a breakthrough in an impasse clouding a leaders’ summit in Madrid.

After urgent top-level talks, alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said “we now have an agreement that paves the way for Finland and Sweden to join Nato”.

This comes after an eleventh-hour meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Swedish Premier Magdalena Andersson, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg before the official dinner marking the beginning of the Madrid Summit of June 28-30.

“I am pleased to announce that we have an agreement that paves the way for the accession of Sweden and Finland,”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted Sweden and Finland to abandon their long-held non-aligned status and apply to join the security body.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said the three countries’ leaders signed a joint agreement after talks on Tuesday while, Turkey said it had “got what it wanted” including “full cooperation… in the fight against” the rebel groups.

The agreement comes at the opening of a crucial summit dominated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

US president Joe Biden and other Nato leaders arrived in Madrid for a summit that will set the course of the alliance for the coming years.

The summit was kicking off with a leaders’ dinner hosted by Spain’s King Felipe VI at the 18th-century Royal Palace of Madrid.

Mr. Stoltenberg said the meeting would chart a blueprint for the alliance “in a more dangerous and unpredictable world”.

“To be able to defend in a more dangerous world we have to invest more in our defense,” Mr. Stoltenberg said.

Just nine of Nato’s 30 members meet the organization’s target of spending 2% of the gross domestic product on defense. Spain, which is hosting the summit, spends just half that.

Later on, a senior US administration official said Washington did not offer any concessions to Turkey to coax it to accept the deal to drop its opposition to Finland and Sweden joining. The official said President Biden made a deliberate choice to keep the US from being a party to the negotiations or being in a position where Turkey could ask for inducements from the US.