Finland, Sweden, Turkey hold NATO expansion talks this month | Nation
HELSINKI – Representatives of Finland, Sweden and Turkey plan to meet in August to discuss the expansion of NATO to the north, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said at a press conference on Friday.
Discussions in Finland should continue on the basis of the memorandum signed by the three states just before the NATO summit in Madrid in June, Haavisto said.
Prior to that agreement, Turkey had blocked Sweden and Finland’s plans to join the Western military alliance.
Specifically, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the two of harboring members of the Syrian YPG Kurdish militia, as well as members of the Gulenist movement.
The YPG is considered to have links to terrorism by some, but is considered by some Western countries to be the most effective fighting force on the ground in Syria against Islamist extremist groups. Members of the Gulenist network are accused of organizing an attempted coup in 2016.
In the agreement, the two Scandinavian countries promised Turkey, among other things, support against threats to national security. Deportations must also be facilitated. In the future, meetings with representatives of the three countries should take place alternately in Finland, Sweden and Turkey, Haavisto said.
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