Erdogan will meet with leaders of Sweden and Finland before the NATO summit
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ISTANBUL, June 26 (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will take part in a round of talks with the leaders of Sweden and Finland, as well as NATO on Tuesday ahead of the Madrid summit, Turkish Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Sunday.
Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But the tenders have met with opposition from Turkey, which has been outraged by what they say is Helsinki and Stockholm’s support for Kurdish militants and arms embargoes against Ankara.
In a speech with the television company Haberturk, Kalin said that he and Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal would also participate in another round of talks with Swedish and Finnish delegations in Brussels on Monday.
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“A four-way leadership summit will be held in the presence of our President in Madrid at the request of the Secretary General of NATO,” he said.
Kalin said that Erdogan was present at the talks with Sweden, Finland and NATO on Tuesday “does not mean that we will take a step back from our position.”
Kalin said that Turkey and the Nordic countries had largely agreed on issues and that they would have a better position in Madrid if they could agree on them during the talks on Monday.
“We have taken the negotiations to a certain point. It is not possible for us to take a step back here,” he said of the talks on Monday.
Earlier this month, Turkey said that documents it received from Sweden and NATO in response to the earlier written demands they presented to the two candidates were far from meeting its expectations and all negotiations must first address Turkish issues. Read more
Kalin has previously said that the summit in Madrid is not a deadline.
NATO leaders will meet in Madrid on June 29-30. Each NATO membership requires the approval of all 30 members of the Alliance. Turkey has been a NATO ally for more than 70 years and has the alliance’s second largest army.
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Reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen; Edited by Daniel Wallis
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