NATO allies welcome agreement between Türkiye, Sweden: Vilnius summit communique

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AA) - NATO allies on Tuesday welcomed an agreement between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson that paved the way for the Nordic country's entry into the military alliance.

"We look forward to welcoming Sweden as a full member of the Alliance and, in this regard, welcome the agreement reached between the NATO Secretary General (Jens Stoltenberg), the President of Türkiye, and the Prime Minister of Sweden," said a joint statement issued after day one of the ongoing NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Türkiye on Monday agreed to send Sweden's NATO Accession Protocol to its parliament for ratification.

The communique described the fight against terrorism as "essential" for NATO's defense.

"We categorically reject and condemn terrorism in the strongest possible terms. Countering terrorism in all its forms and manifestations is essential to our collective defence," it said.

Regarding Ukraine's NATO membership, the communique underlined that the alliance "fully supports" Kyiv's right to choose its own security arrangements, adding that "Ukraine’s future is in NATO."

"We reaffirm the commitment we made at the 2008 Summit in Bucharest that Ukraine will become a member of NATO, and today we recognise that Ukraine’s path to full Euro-Atlantic integration has moved beyond the need for the Membership Action Plan," it said. "Ukraine has become increasingly interoperable and politically integrated with the Alliance, and has made substantial progress on its reform path."

However, it said that the alliance will extend an invitation to Ukraine when "allies agree and conditions are met."