NATO dialogue with Sweden, Finland “meaningless”: Turkey – News today
It is “pointless” to hold a trilateral meeting with Sweden and Finland to discuss their NATO accession process after the recent protests in Stockholm, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said. “In this environment, a trilateral meeting is pointless. It has been postponed because the current environment will overshadow this, Cavusoglu explained at a joint press conference with visiting Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported. – Sweden must decide. Does it want to join NATO or not? One of the aims of these incidents is to prevent Sweden from joining NATO, the Turkish minister said, referring to recent protests in the Nordic country, which have involved the burning of the Koran and demonstrations by supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). . of Turkey. He warned that the incident was a “racist attack that has nothing to do with freedom of thought”. Turkey has postponed a trilateral meeting with Sweden and Finland on their NATO bid planned for February after the burning of a copy of the Koran in Stockholm. Sweden and Finland submitted their formal requests to join NATO in May 2022, which was initially protested by Türkiye, a NATO member, citing their support for anti-Turkish Kurdish organizations and political dissidents. A month later, Turkey, Sweden and Finland reached a memorandum of understanding (MoU) ahead of the NATO summit in Madrid.