Finland and Sweden believe the recent negotiations with Turkey on their accession to NATO to be constructive enough and plan to continue the talks in the same vein, the Finnish Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th May, 2022) Finland and Sweden believe the recent negotiations with Turkey on their accession to NATO to be constructive enough and plan to continue the talks in the same vein, the Finnish Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, Sweden, Finland and Turkey held the relevant discussions in Ankara. The Turkish delegation was headed by Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin and Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal, while the Swedish and Finnish delegations were led by State Secretary Oscar Stenstrom and Permanent State Secretary Jukka Salovaara, respectively.
"Discussions between officials from Finland, Sweden and Turkey in Ankara today, dealing with Finland's and Sweden's NATO membership and the security concerns presented by Turkey. It was agreed that the dialogue, conducted in a constructive spirit, will be continued," the Finnish foreign ministry wrote on Twitter.
Kalin, in turn, said that Sweden and Finland had understood Turkey's security concerns over their membership in NATO.
On May 18, Finland and Sweden submitted their NATO membership applications to Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Whether the two countries will be admitted to the alliance hinges on unanimous approval by NATO member states.
On May 19, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara had informed its NATO allies that it would say no to the membership of Stockholm and Helsinki, citing their involvement in supporting the Kurdistan movement, which Turkey regards as terrorist and deems as a serious threat to its national security. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stressed the need for a written undertaking from Finland and Sweden that they will stop supporting terrorism.
