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Türkiye won't ratify Sweden's NATO entry overnight – Erdogan adviser

12 July 2023 16:49 (UTC +04:00)

"Türkiye's pledge to ratify Sweden's ascension into NATO may not be a swift process due to parliament's schedule", the chief foreign policy adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Akif Cagatay Kilic said, APA reports citing Nikkei Asia.

Akif Cagatay Kilic said that after returning from the NATO summit in Lithuania, Erdogan will sit down with his coalition partner and then send Sweden's ratification documents to parliament.

"The administration will do its part to send it to parliament as soon as possible", Akif Cagatay Kilic said, on the sidelines of the summit.

Yet, with parliament set to enter recess next week and not return convene again until Oct. 1, it will be a race against time to make Sweden the 32nd alliance member before the summer holiday.

"It's not like you push a button and the next day everything happens. There is a parliamentary process, so I don't see it happening this week", Kilic said.

The ratification process requires the president to send the accession protocol to the Turkish parliament, where it will first be debated in the Foreign Affairs Committee. After the committee vote it will come up for a vote at the General Assembly. Once ratified, the decision will be published in the official gazette.

While acknowledging that Sweden has made efforts to address Ankara's concerns about so-called anti-Turkish groups, Kilic signaled that Ankara was hoping Stockholm would do more.

"They have fulfilled certain requirements in the trilateral agreement", he said, pointing to the 10-point Trilateral Memorandum signed by Türkiye and NATO prospects Finland and Sweden ahead of last year's NATO summit in Madrid.

"There is sincerity there, but there is some work that has to be done", he added, hinting that it is not a done deal. "That's why we are saying it's up to parliament to work on that because our part, as the executive branch, is to send it to parliament".

"There is no such thing as a good terrorist. Terrorists are bad, without any kind of 'ifs' and 'buts'", and a coordinator can help in spreading that understanding, Kilic said.