Stockholm: Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom has said that the country’s process of joining NATO has come to a standstill. Bilstrom, speaking to Expressen newspaper, said the events of the past few weeks had temporarily halted the process. Bilstrom told Swedish television on Saturday that the foreign ministry has done a lot to stem the anger against Sweden in recent weeks, and it will take some time to subside after such a major incident, Xinhua news agency reported. It may seem
Sweden’s bid for NATO membership suffered a major setback earlier this month following protests against Turkey’s president and the burning of a copy of the Quran in Stockholm. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Sweden on Monday that it should not expect Ankara’s support to join NATO after these incidents.
February meeting postponed
A meeting between Turkey, Sweden and Finland, proposed in February, has also been postponed indefinitely. The news agency reported that in a recent poll conducted by the semi-official Anadolu Agency, 92.5 percent of respondents in Turkey said no to Turkish approval of Sweden’s NATO bid.