Erdogan to discuss NATO bid with Swedish PM in Turkey: report

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accepted a request from Sweden's new prime minister to visit Turkey for talks aimed at overcoming Ankara's objections to Stockholm and Helsinki's bids to join NATO, local media reported on Friday.

Sweden and Finland earlier this year tore up their long-standing policies of non-alignment after Russia invaded Ukraine and launched their bids to join the US-led military alliance.       

The move has received strong backing from the vast majority of NATO members but Erdogan has stalled the process over accusations the Nordic neighbours are havens for Kurdish militants hostile to Ankara.         

"Sweden's new prime minister requested an appointment. I told our friends to 'give an appointment.'... We will discuss these issues with him in our country," Erdogan was quoted as saying by private NTV television on his plane back from Azerbaijan, reports BSS.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Thursday he was ready to head

to Ankara to urge Turkey to back his country's bid to join the alliance.

During his first trip abroad as Sweden's new foreign minister, Tobias

Billstrom told reporters in Helsinki that the proposed meeting between Erdogan

and Kristersson was "very positive" news.

"We believe that close dialogue and close consultations with all the three

parties... is the way forward," he said.

Billstrom added that there would "be a broad scope for the negotiations

about the implementation" of the deal and that Sweden was expecting Turkey to

ratify the applications "in fullness of time."

Kristersson said he aimed to show the Turkish leader that Sweden and

Finland "actually do what we promised" to fulfil a deal with Ankara to clear

their path into NATO.

Erdogan said Ankara's position remained unchanged, calling on Sweden and

Finland to deliver "these terrorists" sought by Turkish authorities.

"Unless they are sent back to us, things will not work at the parliamentary

stage," he threatened.

Erdogan has accused both countries of being havens for Kurdish militants,

specifically highlighting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and for

promoting "terrorism".

According to a Western diplomat interviewed by AFP, there is a "reasonable

chance" that an agreement will be reached with Ankara before the elections in

Turkey scheduled for June.

Paul Levin, director of the Institute for Turkish Studies at Stockholm

University, told AFP he was "cautiously optimistic" about the possibility of a

breakthrough.

"I think things could move. While the rhetoric so far has been pretty

tough, especially from the Turkish side, it was also tough in advance of the

Madrid Summit," Levin said, noting that the parties managed to reach an

agreement allowing the formal invitation to move forward.