Swedish Foreign Ministry admits that relations between Stockholm and Ankara are “cool”

MOSCOW, January 31 – RIA Novosti. Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said relations between Stockholm and Ankara are “cool” at the moment.

Earlier, the leader of the Danish far-right party “Hard Course” Rasmus Paludan burned the Koran at the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm, having previously received permission from the Swedish authorities to hold the action. Later, he held an action with the burning of the holy book of Muslims in front of the Turkish embassy in Copenhagen, near a mosque in the capital of Denmark. A similar action was held at the consular department of the Russian Embassy in Denmark, located in Copenhagen. The Russian diplomatic mission condemned such actions.

Ankara called on the authorities of a number of European countries that have not yet responded to the actions that marginalize Muslims, to speak out about the violation of the universal values ​​that they allegedly stand for.

“At the moment, relations between the countries are cool. And this is quite natural. However, it seems important to me to focus on moving forward,” Billström said on Swedish Radio.

At the same time, according to the minister, the recent deterioration in relations between the parties will not impede Sweden’s course towards joining NATO.

Billström said earlier that against the backdrop of actions with the burning of the Koran, the process of the kingdom’s entry into NATO was suspended, but expressed the hope that agreements with Ankara could be reached at the summit of the foreign ministries of the countries of the alliance in Vilnius in July. As a source in Ankara told RIA Novosti, the tripartite mechanism for the process of membership of Sweden and Finland in NATO has been suspended for an indefinite period at the request of the Turkish side.

Earlier, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto allowed the continuation of the procedure for ratifying the country’s application to the North Atlantic Alliance separately from Sweden, but then took his words back. In turn, Cavusoglu said that Turkey did not receive proposals from Finland on a separate application from Sweden for joining NATO.