Sweden's top diplomat: We'll fulfil deal with Turkey on NATO

Sweden's center-right government will fulfil all requirements under a deal with Turkey to join NATO and will concentrate external relations to its immediate neighborhood while dropping previous ministration's “feminist foreign policy," country's top diplomat said Monday.

Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said new government shares Turkey’s concern about Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization in Turkey, Europe and United States.

“re will be nsense from Swedish government when it comes to PKK,” Billström told Associated Press in an interview. “We are fully behind a policy which means that terrorist organizations don’t have a right to function on Swedish territory.”

Turkey stalled Sweden and Finland’s historic bid to join NATO over concerns that two countries - Sweden in particular - h become a safe haven for members of PKK and affiliated groups.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed by Sweden’s previous left-leaning government at a NATO summit in June, Sweden and Finland committed to t support Kurdish groups in Syria that Turkey says are affiliated with PKK and to lift arms embargos on Turkey imposed after its incursion in rrn Syria in 2019. y also agreed to “dress pending deportation or extrition requests of terror suspects,” which has proven more complicated due bro definition of terrorism in Turkey, where anti-terror laws have been used to crack down on opponents of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“Everything which is written into trilateral memorandum, and which has been agreed upon by all three parties, should be fulfilled, needs to be fulfilled by all three parties,” Billström said, ding that “everything also has to be done in a legally safe way.”

PKK has led an armed insurgency against Turkish state since 1984 and conflict has since resulted in deaths of tens of thousands of people.

Paul Levin, director of Institute for Turkish Studies at Stockholm University, said new government may have an vant over previous Social Democratic government in dealing with Turkey because it doesn’t have same links to Kurdish diaspora in Sweden. However, independence of authorities and courts in Sweden “sets limits to what is possible, and so does international law,” Levin said.

Hungary and Turkey are only NATO countries which have t yet ratified accession of Sweden and Finland, tritionally n-aligned countries which rushed to apply for membership after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

Like most European countries, Sweden has clearly taken Ukraine’s side in war, supplying its armed forces with anti-tank weapons, assault rifles and anti-ship missiles. Ukraine has also asked Sweden to provide Archer artillery system and RBS-70 portable air defense system. Billström said new government has t yet decided on those requests.

“We are rey to try and give as much aid as possible to Ukrainian government in its heroic struggle against Russian forces,” Billström said. “We shall see when we have me proper assessments about se matters.”

A former migration minister, Billström is a senior member of conservative Moderate Party, which formed a coalition government last week with center-right Liberals and Christian Democrats. new government relies on support from anti-immigration Sweden Democrats with whom it has drafted a joint policy platform that includes sharp restrictions on immigration and a crackdown on organized crime.

Billström also pledged a shift in Sweden’s foreign relations, with emphasis on rrn Europe. Tritionally Sweden has sought to project itself internationally as a “humanitarian superpower” with relatively generous support for developing countries around globe and a strong commitment to United Nations.

“This is t to say that we won’t be interested in rest of world, far from it,” Billström said, ting that he h given a speech earlier Monday at celebration for United Nations Day, which marks anniversary of 1945 UN charter.

“But when it comes to se recalibrations that we are aiming at, it is true that re will be a shift of focus,” he said. “And rdic countries, Baltic countries and European Union will be three legs on which we will base this recalibration.”

In dition, new government will give up “feminist foreign policy” which previous government established in 2014. label has since been used by or countries, including Cana, France, Spain and Germany.

“We believe that equal rights between men and women is important, but to use expression ‘feminist foreign policy’ means that you sometimes divert interest away from what is really important. You put more emphasis upon label than about actual content,” Billström said.