Negotiations between Turkish officials and delegations from Sweden and Finland on their NATO membership began Wednesday at the presidential palace in Ankara, the newspaper Gumhurriyet reported.
According to it, the Turkish side is represented by presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalın and Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal.
May 18, ambassadors of Finland and Sweden to NATO Klaus Korhonen and Axel Vernhoff presented applications for joining the alliance to Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. At the summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in the Kremlin on May 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned about Moscow's response to the expansion of the NATO military infrastructure on the territory of Finland and Sweden. The Russian leader also noted that NATO's expansion at the expense of Finland and Sweden does not pose a direct threat to Russia because Moscow has no problems with these countries.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on May 18 that Ankara would not support Sweden and Finland joining NATO until they defined their attitude towards terrorist organizations, in particular, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Turkey considers such. He made a similar statement on May 16, noting that he opposed Finland and Sweden joining NATO because of those countries' refusal to extradite PKK individuals to Turkey. Nevertheless, Erdoğan added on May 21 that Turkey would support Sweden and Finland's accession if Stockholm and Helsinki showed clear solidarity with Ankara over its security concerns.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS