Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has discussed Sweden and Finland's application for NATO membership with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Friday and intends to hold similar phone talks with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto on Saturday, Turkish media reported on Friday, citing Erdogan
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th May, 2022) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has discussed Sweden and Finland's application for NATO membership with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Friday and intends to hold similar phone talks with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto on Saturday, Turkish media reported on Friday, citing Erdogan.
According to the Daily Sabah newspaper, during the phone talks with Rutte, Erdogan once again expressed Turkey's opposition for NATO accepting the countries allegedly involved in supporting the Kurdistan movement, which Ankara regards as terrorist and deems as a serious threat to its national security.
"They (terrorists) are doing all kinds of marches in Finland, in Sweden, especially in Germany. When we say extradite these terrorists, they don't," the Turkish leader said, as quoted by the Daily Sabah.
On Wednesday, the ambassadors of Sweden and Finland handed over their countries' applications for NATO membership to the alliance's Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg. Their membership hinges on unanimous approval by NATO member states, but Turkey and Croatia seem to hold back the accession process.
On Thursday, Erdogan said that Ankara had informed its NATO allies that it would say no to the membership of Sweden and Finland, and would not change its position. Niinisto, in turn, said that Helsinki took Turkish concerns about its accession to NATO seriously and would continue discussions with Ankara in the coming days.
