Turkey and Sweden will continue their talks with the aim of removing Ankara’s objections to Sweden’s accession to NATO, the head of the Swedish negotiators said today on Wednesday.

“My job is to convince my counterparts that we have done enough. I think we did it”, noted Oskar Stenstrom. However, he added that “but Turkey is not ready to make a decision yet, and he thinks he needs other answers to the questions he has.”

Stenstrom said no specific date has been set for resuming talks.

The Turkish presidency in its announcement stated that “in today’s meeting, where representatives of Turkey, Sweden, Finland and NATO participated, it was agreed to continue cooperation between them with the perspective of Sweden joining the Alliance”.

“Some progress has been made”

In order to achieve “some progress” in the negotiations for Sweden’s accession to NATO, G.G. of NATO Jens Stoltenberg during a press conference he gave today in Brussels, ahead of the meeting of the Alliance’s defense ministers on 15 and 16 June.

The Secretary General of NATO specifically stated that in the quadripartite meeting held today in Ankara, between Turkey, Sweden, Finland and NATO, “some progress made” and that the meeting took place in a “constructive spirit”. “We will continue to work for the ratification of Sweden’s accession as soon as possible,” he stressed, noting, however, that there are neither timetables nor guarantees.

G. Stoltenberg commented that in the meeting he had on April 4 in Ankara with Turkish President Erdogan, he pointed out to him that “Sweden has fulfilled its commitments”, strengthened the anti-terror law and lifted the arms embargo.

The GM of NATO underlined that “It is possible that there will be an agreement before the NATO summit” that will take place in Vilnius on July 11 and 12.