Turkey will lift veto against Finland, Sweden if it fulfills its commitments: Erdogan
Madrid, June 20 (EFE) .- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that he would wait for Sweden and Finland to fulfill their commitments to Ankara before lifting a veto on the Nordic countries’ accession to NATO.
“This is the beginning, we will closely monitor the implementation of the promises made in the memorandum and take action accordingly,” Erdogan said at a news conference at the end of a NATO summit in Madrid.
The Turkish president was referring to an agreement signed this week by Finland, Sweden and Turkey in which the Nordic countries agree to address Ankara’s concerns, including arms sales and the fight against terrorism.
Turkey has accused Stockholm and Helsinki of supporting Kurdish organizations that they consider terrorists.
In the agreement, the Nordic governments promised “energetic” measures against the PKK, the Kurdish armed group that has fought against a number of Turkish governments for decades, and to conclude extradition agreements with Turkey.
Erdogan said that Sweden had pledged to extradite 73 terror suspects to Turkey.
“It’s the promise and they will keep it,” he said. EFE
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