Sweden’s NATO bid got a lot more complicated this week after the Swedish government barely survived a no-confidence vote against its justice minister prompted by a rise in gang violence.
In order to survive the vote, Sweden’s ruling Social Democrats needed the support of Amineh Kakabaveh, an independent MP of Kurdish-Iranian heritage. Kakabaveh voted with the Social Democrats, and her single vote gave them the majority in parliament.
After the vote on Tuesday, Kakabaveh said the Swedish government gave her assurances that they wouldn’t cave to Turkey’s demands regarding Kurdish militant groups that Ankara says are necessary for the Nordic nation to be able to join NATO.
Turkey wants both Sweden and Finland to crack down on the PKK, a Kurdish militant group Ankara, the US, and the EU consider a terrorist organization. Ankara also wants the Nordic nations to lift export restrictions they placed on Turkey in response to its offensive in northeast Syria in 2019.
Last November, Kakabaveh and the Swedish government reached a deal that she would vote to bring the cabinet into power in exchange for a resolution for deeper cooperation with the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is considered the Syrian affiliate of the PKK. The PYD is also affiliated with the YPG, the military wing of the Kurdish-led SDF, which the US backs in northeast Syria.
According to Kakabaveh, the November deal said that it was “unacceptable” that certain states classify the YPG and PYD as terrorists and called for the Social Democrats to “deepen their cooperation with the PYD.”
The Social Democrats confirmed Tuesday that the deal was still in effect, signaling that the Swedish government won’t give in to Turkey’s demands. “The agreement we reached in November still applies … we Social Democrats always stand by the agreements we make, you can always trust that,” said Tobias Baudin, the party secretary for the Social Democrats.
Turkish officials have made clear that they won’t drop their objection to Sweden and Finland’s NATO memberships if they don’t see “concrete steps,” and the two countries need the consent of all 30 NATO members to join. It’s unclear if Finland would still join the military alliance without Sweden, as the two Nordic countries decided together to put in their applications.
As more than 80% of the Swedish parliament backs the application for NATO membership, there won’t be any difficulties in reaching an agreement with Turkey.
In addition to that, the US has realised what an important partner Sweden will be for total control of the Baltic area and will put pressure on Erdogan. It’s already a done deal!
Sweden has time to see how things develop in Ukraine. NATO has cracks already, sanctions are breaking up the EU, as one could expect if they sanction each other to please Biden.
The Biden administration and NATO governments are like chickens with their heads cut off. Biden and his team are like poison. The new press secretary has to read notes to answer journalists questions.
Biden turned the US into a lawless hegemon, making enemies wherever he goes.
Rebate, please don’t hold your breathe 🙂
Maybe it will happen during your grand-grandchildrens time…
The USA is not looking for partners, it is looking for vassals, proxies. They don’t always get what they want.
The people will feel the consequences of the sanctions by fall time or so. That could cause domestic problems and change the landscape.
One thing, don’t forget, the European NATO members don’t have the same interests the US has. The US is willing to throw Europe under the bus for American interests, the Europeans are not ready to go that far.
Not to forget, Russian missiles can reach London and the WH and the Pentagon and some other cities too.
In war, things can get out of control.
Russia isn’t looking for partners, it’s looking for areas to loot and suck dry.
“The people will feel the consequences of the sanctions by fall time or so. That could cause domestic problems and change the landscape.“
The poor Russian people is already starting to feel the consequences of the crippling sanctions, come fall and it will be outright chaos.
“don’t forget, the European NATO members don’t have the same interests the US has”
Actually they do, the Europeans want peace in Europe and so does the US so it can pivot to the challenges in the Pacific.
Russia isn’t even a worthy adversary to the US, China on the other hand, is a different animal altogether.
The US wants regime change, another Yeltsin to privatize the Russian resources to become profitable for the US oil concerns. In the process they will also destroy the EU economic competition and after that it will be China’s turn.
NATO MEMBERS are proxies, they don’t want to destroy their continent for the benefit of US interests, the US is ready to do just that.
But delusion of grandeur does destroy good judgment. It has happened to empires like the Colonial British empire and the Roman Empire and all the others before them. The US is way overextended militarily and is without friends, just proxies and the surrogate in London. But Boris is shaky, he may not last much longer either.
So typical American arrogance, you are under estimating the Russian people and their leadership.
Russia is a highly educated nation, with a healthy and well trained labor force, a nation proud of its history, its culture the arts, technology, the first satellite and man in space were Russian. Their arts and technology in every thing are the best among the best. You better open eyes and ears and most of all
HAVE AN OPEN MIND.
One more thing,
Russia HAS A HEALTHY WORKING MIDDLE CLASS. The backbone of a any proud nation.
We have a morally and intellectually corrupt elite and a shrinking and uneducated working middle class.
Our government works to impoverish the American working middle class, they don’t even have affordable health care.
Agree, Renate, that Russia has a rich history that puts Amerikkka to shame. I am especially impressed by the composers: I love classical music and my favorites have names like Mussorgsky, Borodin, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsikov.
Wonder if anyone will be listening to New Kids on the Block 100 years from now 😁
Olof Palme also stood up for Swedish independence and global justice, which is why the empire killed him.
Bless her heart, She’s going to feel exactly like a “politician”.
“PKK, a Kurdish militant group … the EU consider a terrorist organization” – Not really. According to the EU’s top court and the UN, the PKK are fully legitimate.
No soup for YOU, Sweden!
De facto Sweden is a NATO member, neutrality is in the eyes of the beholder. Finland is interesting, who paid whom behind closed doors? Giving up neutrality is more than stupid, it is more like treason.
So was Ukraine; a de facto member. Everything but Article 5.
You see how well that turned out for them.
The people in Sweden and Finland can only hope that Erdogan sticks to his guns, that could save their necks since their leaders are treasonous people. US/NATO are the real adversaries to Russia. The USA declared Russia their adversary a long time ago, Ukraine is only a proxy and NATO is just a bigger proxy serving US interests, which are the natural resources, and a Navalny type replacement for Putin.
It was never about Ukrainian NATO member ship, or freedom and democracy. Biden at last let the cat out of the bag.
What an amazing example of the confluence of seeming incongruent events, locally and internationally, in one person’s vote, preventing a narrow no confidence vote in the government, and preventing Sweden from joining NATO, preserving it’s independence, and supporting the independence of the Kurdish people at the same time.
Russians are so intelligent (master chess players) regarding geopolitics it would not surprise me at all to find out Ministry of Foreign Affairs knew about the precarious hold on power.
Then, knowing full well the Kurds have that much power, asked Turkey to specifically push the issue or veto NATO acceptance.
I am confident Putin and Lavrov play geopolitics at that level considering their past actions.
The Swedes lucked out this time.
Nato needed to get away with at least something from its defeat in the ukraine but looks like Turkey and Russia is not going to let them. Russia will get her security guarantees when the war is over, and then some, and we’ll starting to see the end of NATO too.