Turkey Drops Veto On Sweden's NATO Bids, Wins Significant Concessions

Turkish President Recep Erdogan yesterday agreed to drop his year-long veto on Sweden's NATO membership bid, less than 24 hours out from the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.

• Turkey and Sweden released a statement yesterday agreeing to meet annually to work towards "full implementation of all elements of the Trilateral Memorandum," signed last year to address Turkish security concerns.
• Sweden has "amended its constitution, changed its laws, significantly expanded its counter- terrorism cooperation against the PKK, and resumed arms exports" to Turkey and reiterated that it will not provide support to YPG/PYD, and FETÖ.
• Sweden also agreed to, "actively support" Turkey's EU accession process, modernisation of the EU-Turkey Customs Union and visa liberalisation.
• Taken as a whole, the concessions are a major win for Erdogan who maintained his veto under intense diplomatic pressure from NATO. EU and European Commission officials have thrown cold water on the prospect of Turkey's EU membership being linked with NATO but the public support from Sweden is likely to play well domestically in Turkey as Sweden's long-term tacit support of Kurdish groups has been a major political issue in Turkey.
• As expected, Hungary has indicated they will follow suit.