Luxembourg: Turkey is likely to allow Finland, Sweden to join NATO
Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn (left) talks with EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in the European Council building in Brussels on Monday. [Olivier Matthys/AP]
Luxembourg’s foreign minister says he does not believe Turkey will prevent Sweden and Finland from joining NATO, despite the Turkish president’s stated objections.
All 30 current NATO members, including Turkey, must agree to allow their Nordic neighbors to join. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said they have failed to take a “clear” stance against Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara considers terrorists, and imposed military sanctions on Turkey.
But Luxembourg’s longtime foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, told German radio station Deutschlandfunk on Tuesday that he suspected Erdogan was only “pushing up the price” for the two countries’ membership. He said: “At the end of the day, I am convinced that Turkey can not pull the brakes on this.”
Asselborn added that “this will take some time, I hope not too long.”
He pointed to Turkey’s removal in 2019 from the US-led F35 fighter jet and the possibility for Ankara to get F-16 fighter jets from the US. [AP]