Sweden hosts the second NATO negotiations with Türkiye, Finland
ANKARA
Officials from Turkey, Sweden and Finland are scheduled to gather in Stockholm to review the steps taken by the two Nordic states to meet Turkish demands to join the NATO alliance.
A Turkish delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal and Presidential Advisor İbrahim Kalın has been sent to Stockholm to discuss the development of Sweden and Finland’s accession process to the alliance.
It is the second meeting of the permanent joint mechanism set up by the three states under the trilateral agreement they signed in late June. The agreement paved the way for the two Scandinavian countries to begin the membership process to the alliance on the condition that they intensify anti-terror cooperation with Turkey and extradite terrorists.
Sweden and Finland have taken some steps to address Turkey’s concerns, but Ankara says more concrete steps are needed for the Turkish parliament to ratify their accession to the alliance. Of 30 allied nations, only Turkey and Hungary have not promised parliamentary approval to Sweden and Finland.
“We support NATO’s open-door policy. We are not against Sweden and Finland’s membership in NATO. But we are waiting for them to fulfill the commitments they promised on June 28 in Madrid,” Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on November 22 in parliament.
He explained that Ankara is asking them to cut their links and support to the terrorist organizations and remove restrictions on the sale of military equipment to Türkiye. Ankara has long criticized both countries for not taking action against the activities of terrorist organizations, namely the PKK, YPG and FETÖ, on their soil.
Sweden has recently amended its anti-terror law with promises that it will strengthen the hands of law enforcement agencies against terrorist organizations. The law enters into force on January 1. Ankara acknowledges that there are some positive steps from Sweden and Finland, but it plans to see the implementation of the new law in Sweden in the first quarter of 2023.
However, Finland and Sweden want to see a faster process to join NATO. The issue will be brought up when NATO’s foreign ministers meet in Bucharest on 29 and 30 November, with the participation of the Swedish and Finnish ministers as well.
Çavuşoğlu speaks with Finnish counterpart
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu exchanged a phone call with his Finnish counterpart Pekka Haavisto on 24 November. The two ministers discussed the NATO accession process for Sweden and Finland as well as the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.