Foreign Policy: Turkey’s disagreements with NATO showed Russia the weakness of the alliance
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Ankara may be deliberately delaying the entry of Sweden and Finland into the North Atlantic Alliance to please Moscow, writes Foreign Policy magazine.
The author of the article, Robb Graemer, believes that Turkey’s “coldness” regarding NATO expansion to the North is connected with Russia’s economic influence on Ankara.
The observer also considers the contradictions that have arisen within the bloc to be a message to Moscow and Beijing about the weakness of NATO.
According to him, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, by delaying the process, “undermines the idea of unity and solidarity of the alliance against Russia”, which exhausts the patience of the West, in particular NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
This week Stoltenberg paid a visit to Turkey. He met with the president and the heads of the Foreign and Defense Ministries.
Sweden and Finland applied to NATO in May amid Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. Turkey first blocked the start of consideration of these applications, later withdrew its objections – after Helsinki and Stockholm signed a memorandum that takes into account all the concerns of Ankara. However, Turkey stressed that the condition for the ratification of Sweden and Finland’s accession to NATO would be the fulfillment by these countries of all requirements regarding Kurdish separatists, the extradition of suspects and the lifting of all restrictions on arms sales to Ankara.
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