Finland hosts talks with Sweden, Turkey
Finland will host a meeting with Sweden and Turkey later this month, the Finnish foreign minister said on Friday, after Ankara voiced its opposition to the Nordic countries’ NATO bid.
“Representatives of Finland, Sweden and Turkey will meet in Finland in August,” Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told reporters.
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He did not specify a date, but Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said earlier that the three would meet on August 26.
Finland and Sweden dropped their longstanding policy of military non-alliance earlier this year when they announced plans to join NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
Their bid has already been ratified by the US and more than half of the 30 NATO members. Each application must win the unanimous consent of the member states.
Only Turkey has opposed their applications, demanding concessions from Helsinki and Stockholm first.
This month’s meeting will continue discussions based on the memorandum the three countries signed in Madrid in June, Haavisto said.
In it, Sweden and Finland agreed to “quickly and thoroughly” investigate Ankara’s extradition requests for suspects linked to a 2016 coup attempt and outlawed Kurdish militants.
Last week, Sweden announced the first extradition of a Turkish citizen following the agreement, but Turkey’s justice minister said on Thursday that the extradition fell far short of Stockholm’s commitments under the agreement.
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