Turkey, Sweden, Finland to meet before July NATO Summit
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Turkey, Sweden, and Finland will be meeting before the upcoming NATO summit in Lithuania to try and overcome outstanding issues.
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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during an interview after meeting US President Joe Biden and the Bucharest Nine leaders in Warsaw, Poland, February 22, 2023 (AP Photo)
Sweden and Finland's representatives held consultations with Turkey on ratification of their applications for NATO membership, agreeing to meet in the same format again before the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, set for July, the alliance said in a statement on Thursday.
"The representatives of Türkiye, Finland, and Sweden discussed the concrete steps that have been taken to implement the Trilateral Memorandum," the statement explained.
"As agreed in the Memorandum, there are no arms export restrictions between them; they have significantly enhanced counter-terrorism cooperation; and Sweden is now in the process of tightening anti-terrorism legislation, including against the PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party]. All participants welcomed the progress that has been made," it further explained.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg convened the representatives of the three countries in Brussels at the alliance's headquarters.
Read: Stoltenberg tells Turkey to ratify Sweden, Finland NATO membership
During his opening speech, Stoltenberg underlined that Finland and Sweden had taken unprecedented steps to address Ankara's security concerns, which he underlined were legitimate before urging all sides to complete the ratification process and accept Finland and Sweden as full-fledged NATO members.
The Permanent Joint Mechanism was established by the Trilateral Memorandum signed in Madrid on the margins of the 2022 NATO Summit.
It was reported earlier in the day that a trilateral meeting of the delegations from Turkey, Sweden, and Finland about NATO membership will be held in Brussels.
Following the outbreak of the Ukraine war, Sweden and Finland both submitted applications to join NATO last year. However, their bids for accession require the unanimous approval of all 30 NATO member states to be considered. Hungary and Turkey are the only countries that have not yet approved the applications.
Rallies attacking the Turkish leadership in Stockholm and the burning of the holy Quran have poured oil onto the fire and further deepened the rift and raised tensions between Turkey and Sweden.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned following the events that the relations with the nordic country have reached a new low.
This promised “rapid accession” was unexpectedly stalled due to Ankara’s position, amid strained relations between Ankara and Sweden due to several incidents that cast doubt on Sweden's chances of gaining Turkey's approval.
On January 23, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara may decide to make a "different" decision on Finland's bid for NATO membership - as opposed to that of Sweden's - that would inevitably "shock" Sweden.
On January 24, as diplomatic tensions between Sweden and Turkey reached an all-time high, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto stated that Finland could consider joining NATO without Sweden.
However, even though Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin reaffirmed earlier in February that Finland intends to join NATO alongside Sweden, high-level sources revealed on February 8 that all Finnish parties, bar one, are prepared for their country to move forward alone.
