ANKARA
Political consultations between Turkey and Sweden will be held on June 29 in the Turkish capital Ankara, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday in the middle of the Nordic country’s attempt to get approval to join NATO.
The talks will be “led by the Deputy Foreign Minister and Director of EU Affairs in Turkey, HE Ambassador Faruk Kaymakci, and the State Secretary for Sweden’s Foreign Ministry, HE Ambassador Robert Rydberg”, according to a statement.
“During consultations, the bilateral relations between Turkey and Sweden will be extensively discussed together with the relations between Turkey and the EU and current regional and international issues,” it added.
Sweden and Finland formally applied to join NATO last month, a decision spurred on by Russia’s war against Ukraine.
But Türkiye, a longtime member of the alliance, objected to the membership offerings and criticized the countries for tolerating and even supporting terrorist groups.
Stoltenberg has always said that Türkiye has “legitimate concerns related to their fight against the terrorist group PKK and other organizations”, and that the PKK is considered a terrorist organization by NATO, the EU, as well as Finland and Sweden.
In its more than 35-year-long terrorist campaign against Turkey, the PKK has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
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