The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, assured yesterday in Stockholm that Spain will work “at all levels and in a constructive way” to get Turkey and Hungary to lift their veto on Sweden’s entry into NATO so that it can take place before the next NATO Summit in Vilnius (Lithuania).
“We will continue to work at all levels and in a constructive way to ask the two remaining countries to complete their ratification as soon as possible and for everything to be ready before the important summit in Vilnius,” Albares said during a joint press conference with Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström.
Albares made these statements after meeting in the Swedish capital with Tobias Billström, with whom he discussed issues such as Sweden’s application to join NATO and the foreign policy priorities of the current Swedish Presidency and the upcoming Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. “In just over a month, Spain will take over from Sweden in the EU Presidency,” the minister stated via his Twitter account. Albares also met with the Swedish Minister for the EU, Jessika Roswall, “to deal with the European dossiers and coordinate the handover.”
At the press conference, Albares assured that “Sweden is already a very close partner of NATO”, but at this time the allies must “thoroughly explain” to Hungary and Turkey “the importance” of allowing their entry into the Alliance, because “it would increase shared Euro-Atlantic security, give a sense of unity and enlarge the family of democracies that we are”.
Albares also recalled that Spain was one of the first countries to ratify Sweden’s NATO membership. For that reason, Minister Billström expressed his gratitude to Spain for the “rapid ratification” of NATO membership and for the “important role” it played during the Madrid Summit in 2022 in getting Sweden’s and Finland’s applications accepted after reaching a last-minute agreement with Turkey to lift its veto.
Finland became a full NATO member in early April, but Sweden continues to face misgivings from Hungary, which has described Stockholm’s attitude towards Budapest as “hostile,” and from Turkey over Sweden’s refusal to extradite individuals allegedly linked to Kurdish terrorism.
Billström also assured Albares that he will do “everything possible” to ensure “a smooth transition” from the current Swedish Presidency of the EU Council to the next Spanish Presidency, which will begin on July 1. In this regard, the Spanish minister described the Swedish Presidency as “successful” and praised the “good work and leadership” shown by Stockholm and assured that “Spain will continue the work you have done so well so far”.
