ISTANBUL – Turkey’s foreign minister said on Friday that Sweden and Finland must now take “concrete steps” to allay his country’s security concerns in order to address Ankara’s objections to their NATO bid.
Delegations from the two Scandinavian countries have returned home with documents describing Turkey’s concerns as information about terrorist groups, following a visit this week, and Ankara is awaiting their answers, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.
Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to join NATO last week. This move represents one of the biggest geopolitical consequences of the Russian war in Ukraine and could rewrite the map of Europe’s security.
Countries’ candidacies require support from all NATO countries, but Turkey, which commands the alliance’s second-largest army, opposes them. It cites alleged support for Kurdish extremists, whom Turkey considers terrorists, and restrictions on arms sales to Turkey.
Cavusoglu said “the approach” we will still convince Turkey in time, we are friends and allies “would not be right”. He insisted that “these countries must take concrete steps”.
He added that “we understand the security concerns of Finland and Sweden, but … everyone must also understand the legitimate security concerns of Turkey.” Turkey has asked NATO to include the fight against terrorism in its “strategic concepts”, the minister said.
Turkey’s top diplomat speaks at a joint news conference with Polish and Romanian counterparts in Istanbul.
Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said: “There is no doubt that we need the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO in order to make it stronger. Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu agreed, saying their membership would “consolidate collective defense and our security”.
This week, Turkey listed five “concrete guarantees” it requires from Sweden, including “ending political support for terrorism”, “eliminating the source of terrorist financing” and “ending arms support” to ban PKK and related groups of the Syrian Kurds.
The demands also call for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and global co-operation against terrorism.
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