More steps needed for Sweden’s NATO membership: Turkey

Ankara : Sweden has not taken enough “concrete steps” to extradite people that Ankara sees as terrorists and freeze their assets, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday, as Sweden tries to convince Turkey to ratify its bid to join NATO.
“They deported a PKK (the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party)-affiliated person to our country. These are steps in the right direction. But, there is no concrete development regarding the extradition of terrorist-related criminals and the freezing of terrorist assets,” Cavusoglu said at a joint news conference with his visiting Swedish counterpart Tobias Billstrom.
A Swedish court’s decision to refuse Turkey’s demand to extradite journalist Bulent Kenes, whom Ankara accuses to be a member of the Gulen Movement, was “a very negative development”, the minister said.
The Swedish statements about lifting the restrictions to Turkey on defence industry products were positive, but Turkish defence companies have not yet received the necessary positive response in importing some products, Cavusoglu also said.
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“The PKK may not be a big threat in Sweden, but it is definitely a very important threat to Turkey and we take it very seriously,” the Swedish minister added.