Ankara, Europe Brief News – Sweden has reversed a ban against exporting military equipment to Turkey, official sources revealed.
The move came following the Nordic country’s decision to join the NATO military alliance and agreement to overcome Turkish objections.
The decision means that Sweden, which has sought NATO membership along with neighboring Finland, will lift an arms embargo it had imposed on Ankara in 2019 after Turkey’s military operation against the Kurdish militia known as the YPG in Syria.
Both Sweden and its neighbour Finland sought NATO membership earlier this year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Both countries face a hurdle in the application process because they need approval from all 30 current NATO members.
Turkey raised objections to the applications, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to block their bids.
“Sweden’s application for membership in NATO greatly strengthens the defense and security policy reasons for granting the export of military equipment to other member states, including Turkey,” the Inspectorate for Strategic Products, a Swedish administrative authority, said in a statement.
Once-neutral Finland and Sweden are abandoning what in Sweden’s case has been 200 years of military nonalignment, driven to join NATO’s mutual defense pact in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its continuing war there.
