Turkeyâs President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signalled on Saturday that no progress had been made in Swedenâs bid to join NATO, urging Stockholm to take âconcrete actionsâ to meet Ankaraâs concerns, his office said.
In a phone call with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, Erdogan reiterated that âSweden should take steps regarding such fundamental matters as combatting terrorismâ, the Turkish presidency said in a statement.
Turkey âwanted to see binding commitments on these issues together with concrete and clear action,â he added.
Finland and Sweden discussed their stalled NATO bids with Turkey in Brussels on Monday, but Ankara dampened hopes that their dispute will be resolved before an alliance summit next week.
Turkish officials said Ankara does not view the summit as a final deadline for resolving Ankaraâs objections.
Ankara has accused Finland and in particular Sweden of providing a safe haven for outlawed Kurdish militants whose decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
Erdogan told Andersson that Sweden âshould make concrete changes in its attitudeâ toward the outlawed Kurdistan Workersâ Party (PKK) and its Syrian affiliates, the presidency said.
âIn this regard no tangible action aimed at addressing Turkeyâs concerns was seen to have been taken by Swedenâ, it added.
The Turkish leader also voiced expectations that Sweden would lift an arms embargo against Turkey that Stockholm imposed in 2019 over Ankaraâs military offensive in Syria.
He also said he hopes that restrictions on Turkeyâs defence industry would be lifted, and that Sweden will extradite several people Ankara has accused of involvement in terrorism.
The phone call comes after Erdogan discussed the two countriesâ bid with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.
Erdogan also told Stoltenberg that âSweden and Finland should take concrete and sincere stepsâ against outlawed Kurdish militants, the presidency said.