Finland, Sweden sends team to Turkey to discuss NATO bid: Finnish Minister Haavisto
Finland and Sweden will send delegations to Ankara on Wednesday to try to resolve Turkish opposition to their applications for membership in NATO’s military alliance, Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Tuesday.
“We send our delegations to visit Ankara, in fact both Sweden and Finland. This will happen tomorrow, so the dialogue will continue, “said Haavisto during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has opposed Sweden and Finland joining NATO, held telephone talks with the leaders of the two Nordic countries on Saturday and discussed their concerns.
Turkey says Sweden and Finland are home to people linked to the militant group Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and supporters of Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt.
“We understand that Turkey has some of its own security problems against terrorism … We believe that these issues can be resolved. There may also be issues that are not directly linked to Finland and Sweden but more to other NATO members,” Haavisto said. .
Erdogan told Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson on Saturday that Ankara expected concrete measures to address its concerns, according to the Turkish presidency. He also said that an arms export embargo imposed on Turkey after its invasion of Syria in 2019 should be lifted, it added.
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said on Saturday that he had held “open and direct” telephone talks with Erdogan.
“I said that Finland and Turkey as allies of NATO will be committed to each other’s security and our relationship will thus grow stronger,” Niinisto tweeted after the conversation.
Erdogan also spoke with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Saturday and told him that Ankara would not take a positive view of Sweden’s and Finland’s NATO bid if they did not clearly show cooperation in the fight against terrorism and other issues.
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