bne IntelliNews – BREAKING: Turkey releases opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO
(This is a news that will be updated)
Turkey has withdrawn its opposition to Finland and Sweden joining NATO, said Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto late on 28 June.
The development comes as a surprise as most analysts expected that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would not do such a thing until the end of the NATO summit in Madrid, which is now ongoing and will last for three days. But if there are no problems, the unanimous acceptance of the Nordic nations’ accession to the defense alliance will enable NATO to show its unity to Moscow during the summit while the war between Ukraine and Russia continues to rage.
Turkey, as the only NATO member to stand in the way of Finland and Sweden joining the military bloc, has accused the two Nordic countries of allowing Kurdish militants and terrorists space to “incubate” in their communities.
Erdogan spoke with US President Joe Biden on June 27 by telephone and is scheduled to meet with him at the Madrid summit on June 29.
A statement from Finnish leader Niinisto said: “We had a thorough meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, chaired by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
“As a result of that meeting, our Foreign Ministers signed a trilateral memorandum confirming that Turkey at the Madrid Summit this week will support Finland’s and Sweden’s invitation to join NATO.”
Stoltenberg said in a statement: “I am pleased to announce that we now have an agreement paving the way for Finland and Sweden to join NATO. Turkey, Finland and Sweden have signed a memorandum addressing Turkey’s concerns, including arms exports and the fight against terrorism. “
Turkey has pressured Washington to allow the purchase of F-16 jets despite an unofficial boycott by Congress on large arms sales to Ankara due to foreign policy and human rights violations.
On June 27, Erdogan said he wanted to see the outcome of the preparatory talks ahead of the summit held in Brussels that day before deciding whether Sweden and Finland had done enough to raise his objections to their NATO membership.
“We’ll see what they point to [Finland and Sweden] has reached “, he said before flying to Madrid for the summit. “We do not want empty words. We want results.”