Turkey lifting objections to Sweden, Finland joining NATO

MADRID — Turkey agreed Tuesday to lift its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO , a breakthrough in an impasse clouding a leaders’ summit in Madrid amid Europe’s worst security crisis in decades triggered by the war in Ukraine.

“We now have an agreement that paves the way for Finland and Sweden to join NATO,” alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said following top-level talks.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted Sweden and Finland to abandon their long-held nonaligned status and apply to join NATO. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had blocked the move, insisting the Nordic pair change their stance on Kurdish rebel groups that Turkey considers terrorists.

Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said the three countries’ leaders signed a joint agreement after talks on Tuesday. Turkey said it had “got what it wanted” including “full cooperation ... in the fight against” the rebel groups.

The agreement comes at the opening of a crucial summit dominated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. U.S. President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders arrived in Madrid for a summit that will set the course of the alliance for the coming years. The summit was kicking off with a leaders’ dinner hosted by Spain’s King Felipe VI at the 18th-century Royal Palace of Madrid.

Stoltenberg said the meeting would chart a blueprint for the alliance “in a more dangerous and unpredictable world.”

“To be able to defend in a more dangerous world we have to invest more in our defense,” Stoltenberg said. Just nine of NATO’s 30 members meet the organization’s target of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense. Spain, which is hosting the summit, spends just half that.

Top of the agenda for leaders in meetings Wednesday and Thursday is strengthening defenses against Russia and supporting Ukraine. Biden, who arrived with the aim of stiffening the resolve of any wavering allies, said NATO was “as united and galvanized as I think we have ever been.”

Moscow’s invasion on Feb. 24 shattered European security and brought shelling of cities and bloody ground battles back to the continent . NATO, which had begun to turn its focus to terrorism and other nonstate threats, has had to confront an adversarial Russia once again.

“Ukraine now faces a brutality which we haven’t seen in Europe since the Second World War,” Stoltenberg said.

Diplomats and leaders from Turkey, Sweden and Finland earlier held a flurry of talks in an attempt to break the impasse over Turkey’s opposition to expansion. The three countries’ leaders met for more than two hours alongside Stoltenberg on Tuesday before the agreement was announced.

Erdoğan is critical of what he considers the lax approach of Sweden and Finland toward groups that Ankara deems national security threats, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and its Syrian extension. American support for Syrian Kurdish fighters in combatting the Islamic State group has also enraged Turkey for years.

Turkey has demanded that Finland and Sweden extradite wanted individuals and lift arms restrictions imposed after Turkey’s 2019 military incursion into northeast Syria. Ending the deadlock will allow NATO leaders to focus on their key issue: an increasingly unpredictable and aggressive Russia.

A Russian missile strike Monday on a shopping mall in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk was a grim reminder of the war’s horrors. Some saw the timing — as Group of Seven leaders met in Germany and just ahead of NATO — as a message from Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is due to address NATO leaders by video on Wednesday, called the strike on the mall a “terrorist” act.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko traveled to Madrid to urge the alliance to provide his country with “whatever it takes” to stop the war.

“Wake up, guys. This is happening now. You are going to be next, this is going to be knocking on your door just in the blink of an eye,” Klitschko told reporters at the summit venue.

Stoltenberg said Monday that NATO allies will agree at the summit to increase the strength of the alliance’s rapid reaction force nearly eightfold , from 40,000 to 300,000 troops. The troops will be based in their home nations, but dedicated to specific countries on NATO’s eastern front, where the alliance plans to build up stocks of equipment and ammunition.

Beneath the surface, there are tensions within NATO over how the war will end and what, if any, concessions Ukraine should make to end the fighting.

There are also differences on how hard a line to take on China in NATO’s new Strategic Concept — its once-a-decade set of priorities and goals. The last document, published in 2010, didn’t mention China at all.

The new concept is expected to set out NATO’s approach on issues from cybersecurity to climate change — and the growing economic and military reach of China, as well as the rising importance and power of the Indo-Pacific region. For the first time, the leaders of Japan, Australia, South Korea and New Zealand are attending the summit as guests.

Some European members are wary of the tough U.S. line on Beijing and don’t want China cast as an opponent.

In the Strategic Concept, NATO is set to declare Russia its No. 1 threat.

Russian state space agency Roscosmos marked the summit’s opening by releasing satellite images and coordinates of the Madrid conference hall where it is being held, along with those of the White House, the Pentagon and the government headquarters in London, Paris and Berlin.

The agency said NATO was set to declare Russia an enemy at the summit, adding that it was publishing precise coordinates “just in case.”

Associated Press writers Aritz Parra, Ciaran Giles and Sylvie Corbet contributed from Madrid.

马德里——土耳其周二同意取消对瑞典和芬兰加入北约的反对立场，这打破了笼罩在马德里领导人峰会上的僵局。此次峰会正值欧洲数十年来最严重的安全危机之际，而这场危机是由乌克兰战争引发的。

“我们现在达成了一项协议，为芬兰和瑞典加入北约铺平了道路，”北约秘书长延斯·斯托尔滕贝格在高级别会谈后表示。

俄罗斯入侵乌克兰促使瑞典和芬兰放弃长期奉行的不结盟政策，申请加入北约。但土耳其总统雷杰普·塔伊普·埃尔多安阻止了这一举动，坚持要求这两个北欧国家改变对土耳其认定为恐怖组织的库尔德反叛组织的立场。

芬兰总统绍利·尼尼斯托表示，三国领导人周二会谈后签署了一项联合协议。土耳其方面称，土耳其“得到了想要的一切”，包括“在打击”叛乱组织方面获得“全面合作”。

这项协议是在一场关键峰会开幕之际达成的，而此次峰会的焦点是俄罗斯入侵乌克兰。美国总统乔·拜登和其他北约领导人抵达马德里，参加此次峰会，此次峰会将决定北约未来几年的发展方向。峰会以西班牙国王费利佩六世在马德里18世纪的王宫举行的领导人晚宴拉开帷幕。

斯托尔滕贝格表示，此次会议将为联盟“在一个更加危险和不可预测的世界中”制定蓝图。

斯托尔滕贝格表示：“为了在日益危险的世界中保卫自身，我们必须加大国防投入。”北约30个成员国中，只有9个达到了该组织设定的国防开支占国内生产总值2%的目标。而东道主西班牙的国防开支仅为这一目标的一半。

周三和周四的领导人会议首要议题是加强对俄罗斯的防御以及支持乌克兰。拜登此行的目的是为了增强任何动摇的盟友的决心，他表示北约“比以往任何时候都更加团结和充满活力”。

2月24日莫斯科的入侵破坏了欧洲的安全，并将炮击城市和血腥地面战斗带回了欧洲大陆。北约原本已开始将注意力转向恐怖主义和其他非国家行为体威胁，如今却不得不再次面对敌对的俄罗斯。

斯托尔滕贝格说：“乌克兰现在面临着自二战以来欧洲从未见过的残酷暴行。”

此前，土耳其、瑞典和芬兰的外交官和领导人举行了一系列密集会谈，试图打破土耳其反对欧盟扩张的僵局。周二，在宣布达成协议之前，这三个国家的领导人与斯托尔滕贝格会面了两个多小时。

埃尔多安批评瑞典和芬兰对安卡拉视为国家安全威胁的组织（包括库尔德工人党及其叙利亚分支）采取宽松态度。多年来，美国支持叙利亚库尔德武装打击伊斯兰国也激怒了土耳其。

土耳其要求芬兰和瑞典引渡被通缉人员，并解除土耳其2019年入侵叙利亚东北部后对两国实施的武器限制。打破僵局将使北约领导人能够集中精力应对他们面临的关键问题：日益难以预测且咄咄逼人的俄罗斯。

周一，俄罗斯导弹袭击了乌克兰中部城市克列缅丘格的一家购物中心，这令人再次想起战争的恐怖。一些人认为，此次袭击的时机——正值七国集团领导人在德国举行会议，且北约即将召开——是莫斯科发出的一种信号。

乌克兰总统泽连斯基将于周三通过视频向北约领导人发表讲话，他称对购物中心的袭击是“恐怖主义”行为。

基辅市长维塔利·克利奇科前往马德里，敦促盟军向他的国家提供“一切必要的”援助，以制止战争。

“醒醒吧，伙计们。这一切正在发生。下一个就是你们，转眼间，机会就会降临到你们头上。”克里琴科在峰会现场对记者们说道。

斯托尔滕贝格周一表示，北约盟国将在峰会上同意将联盟快速反应部队的规模扩大近八倍，从4万人增至30万人。这些部队将驻扎在各自国家，但专门部署在北约东线的特定国家，北约计划在东线地区储备装备和弹药。

表面之下，北约内部存在着关于战争将如何结束以及乌克兰应该做出哪些让步（如果有的话）来结束战斗的紧张局势。

在北约新的战略构想（每十年一次的优先事项和目标）中，对于如何应对中国也存在分歧。上一份文件于2010年发布，当时完全没有提及中国。

预计这一新概念将阐明北约在网络安全、气候变化、中国日益增长的经济和军事影响力以及印太地区日益重要的地位和实力等问题上的立场。日本、澳大利亚、韩国和新西兰的领导人将首次作为嘉宾出席此次峰会。

一些欧洲成员国对美国在对北京问题上的强硬立场感到担忧，不希望中国被视为对手。

在战略概念中，北约将宣布俄罗斯是其头号威胁。

俄罗斯国家航天局（Roscosmos）在峰会开幕之际，发布了举办峰会的马德里会议中心的卫星图像和坐标，以及白宫、五角大楼和位于伦敦、巴黎和柏林的政府总部的卫星图像和坐标。

该机构表示，北约准备在峰会上宣布俄罗斯为敌人，并补充说，为了“以防万一”，他们正在公布精确坐标。

美联社记者阿里茨·帕拉、基兰·吉尔斯和西尔维·科尔贝从马德里报道。