Sweden, Finland sends delegations to Turkey over NATO bids | NATO Review
Hopeful NATO members are trying to resolve differences with Ankara, which opposes their application to join the alliance.
Sweden and Finland are sending delegations to Turkey in hopes of clearing up Ankara’s opposition to their applications to join NATO, according to Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto.
“When we see the problems coming, we will of course take this diplomatically. We will send our delegations to visit Ankara from both Sweden and Finland. This will happen tomorrow,” Haavisto told participants at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday.
Sweden and Finland applied to join the transatlantic alliance in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“We believe that NATO is a group of 30 democratic countries with common values and very strong transatlantic cooperation, and that is what we are looking for right now,” Haavisto added.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister said President Ibrahim Kalin and Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal will meet with Finnish and Swedish officials on Wednesday.
According to Turkey’s news agency Anadolu, the Finnish delegation will be led by Finland’s Permanent Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Jukka Salovaara and the Swedish officials will be led by the Swedish Foreign Minister Oscar Stenström.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted by the private broadcaster NTV as saying that Ankara had drawn up a “draft agreement” which would form the basis of the discussions.
Turkey, he said, wants “guarantees” that can be made in an official, signed agreement, not “wishes”.
NATO member Turkey has long accused Nordic countries, especially Sweden, which has a strong Turkish immigrant community, of hosting banned Kurdish fighters and supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the US-based Muslim researcher accused of involvement in a failed 2016 coup.
Significant obstacles
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Saturday that Turkey would oppose membership of the two candidates unless its concerns were addressed – potentially a significant obstacle as consensus is required in NATO’s decision.
“We understand that Turkey has some of its own security problems, such as terrorism,” Haavisto said.
“We think we have good answers for them because we are also part of the fight against terrorists. So we think this issue can be resolved,” he added.
Analysts say Ankara may also show resistance to securing concessions from other NATO members, such as deliveries of fighter jets from the United States.
Haavisto said: “There may also be some issues that are not directly linked to Finland or Sweden, more to other NATO members or so on, but I am sure that NATO can resolve this issue in good spirits.”