NATO summit ‘not deadline’ for Finland, Sweden talks: Turkey
Turkey does not see next week’s NATO summit as a deadline for resolving its objections to Finland and Sweden joining the Western defense alliance, a senior official said on Monday.
“The NATO summit in Madrid is not a deadline, so our negotiations will continue,” Presidential spokesman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s top foreign policy adviser Ibrahim Kalın told reporters after talks in Brussels.
After decades of military freedom of alliance, Russia’s war in Ukraine forced Sweden and Finland to apply to join NATO in May. But they have faced opposition from Turkey, which has vetoed their entry into the alliance, citing their support for terrorist groups, including the PKK and its Syrian branch, the YPG, and arms embargoes against Ankara.
Kalın and Turkey’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal traveled to Brussels on Sunday for discussions that NATO leaders had hoped would pave the way for the Nordic states’ formal approval to join the bloc at the Madrid summit.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met with representatives from the three countries to try to move forward with membership applications.
While describing the talks as “constructive”, Turkey made it clear that there was still work to be done.
Kalın said that Ankara expected that Sweden, in particular, would take immediate action regarding measures from the PKK in its country, and that all progress with the Nordic membership offers “now depends on the direction and speed in which these countries will take action.”
“The existence of terrorist organizations must end in these countries. That is what we expect from both Finland and Sweden,” he said.
Kalın also expressed Ankara’s expectations regarding the abolition of direct or indirect arms freezes imposed on Turkey.
Sweden and Finland had imposed arms export embargoes on Turkey following its military operation to clear northern Syria east of the YPG’s Euphrates 2019.
Each offer to join NATO requires the support of each of its 30 members. Turkey, which has been an ally of NATO for more than 70 years, has said it will not change its views unless Finland and Sweden take “concrete steps” regarding their concerns.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg called the meeting “constructive” while admitting that Turkey’s “legitimate” fears had still not been fully addressed.
“Turkey has legitimate security concerns about terrorism that we need to address,” Stoltenberg said. “So we will continue our talks on Finland’s and Sweden’s applications for NATO membership, and I look forward to finding a way forward as soon as possible.”