Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will meet in Vilnius, in a meeting convened by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The three will discuss the membership request to the Atlantic Alliance presented by Sweden and blocked by Turkey, which accuses Stockholm of defending i curdi del PKK – considered a terrorist group by Ankara – and of lack of respect for the Islamic religion.
In recent days a new episode had rekindled the controversy: a man has burned a copy of the Koran in front of a Stockholm mosque during an anti-Islam demonstration. And just on the sidelines of this affair, Erdoğan had shown himself to be very tough on Swedish entry into NATO: “We will not approve the entry into NATO of those who open their arms to welcome terrorists“, he had declared.
Cover photo EPA/NECATI SAVAS