Stoltenberg defends Turkey’s position on NATO expansion to Finland and Sweden | Present

Brussels

Finland and Sweden will be able to attend the next Madrid Summit as guests, but it is difficult for them to consolidate their aspirations as candidate countries there if they do not respond to Turkey’s demands before June 28. The Secretary General of NATO is still confident of an agreement prior to the meeting that will bring together the 30 allied governments in Madrid, but he warns that all NATO members have the right to present their demands in the face of an enlargement and defends Turkey as an “allied very important” of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

“When an ally raises a problem, you have to solve it. It has always been done that way,” he says, recalling that because of Greece’s name and veto, the Republic of North Macedonia took more than 10 years to join NATO.

“No one has suffered as many terrorist attacks as Turkey,” Stoltenberg assured, giving legitimacy to Ankara’s claims before specifying that “you speak of Kurds, but we must accept that there are several Kurdish groups and the PKK is on the list of terrorist organizations of the European Union, that is to say of Sweden and of Finland.” A warning to the two governments that have presented their requests for accession and to those who, as members of the EU, think that Turkey should, without further ado, clear the path to accession.

This is the NATO enlargement process

“My goal is for this to be a quick process and I think we are still on time”, he assured before traveling to Madrid where next Monday he will meet with President Pedro Sánchez and King Felipe VI to talk about a Summit that can end in failure if the problem of the new European enlargement is not resolved.

Stoltenberg, who has received a group of female correspondents, has tried to disassociate the Summit from the demand for accession from Finland and Sweden, although after introducing himself it is very difficult to imagine the summit without NATO being able to formulate its response.

But the process of expansion of the Atlantic Alliance needs the unanimity of all its members to be able to start. If there is unanimity, NATO formalizes the invitation to the person who has presented the demand and from this moment the candidate obtains the right to attend all the meetings while the negotiations are structured in five chapters. Once this chapter has been passed, the process of national ratifications in each Parliament is entered. Many steps and many key points with a risk of blockage, sources from the Alliance explain to Cadena SER justifying that Ankara’s problem cannot be solved with a false agreement.

An issue that clouds the importance of a summit whose objective is to adapt the “strategic concept of the Atlantic Alliance” to the current challenges marked by the Russian threat and the war in Ukraine, but also by China’s attitude towards the interests of USA.

A war of attrition

“NATO will continue to be an Alliance of North America and Europe, but this region must face global challenges and obviously China’s attitude has consequences,” Stoltenberg said.

“China has the second largest defense budget in the world, invests in modern nuclear capabilities capable of affecting NATO territory and does not share our values,” says Stoltenberg, detailing the list of violations of fundamental rights and describing the risks with examples such as 5G technology.

The current strategic concept does not include any reference to China and this will be modified in Madrid, although NATO wants to evoke the risks without treating China as an adversary. In the meantime, he must modify the references to Russia that in 2010 was considered by the Alliance as a reliable partner, “something that has ceased to be” with the war in Ukraine.

“What we are seeing in Ukraine is brutal and hateful,” said Stoltenberg, who nevertheless insists that NATO must avoid escalation because “an open conflict between Russia and NATO would be much more painful and destructive.”

Although the secretary general asks the allies to prepare for a long conflict, convinced that “we are facing a war of attrition”.