Finland and Sweden will send delegations to Ankara on Wednesday to try to resolve Turkish opposition to their requests to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance, the Finnish Foreign Minister said. , Pekka Haavisto, this Tuesday (24).
“We are sending our delegations to visit Ankara, in fact, both Sweden and Finland. That will happen tomorrow, so the dialogue continues,” Haavisto said during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has opposed Sweden and Finland joining NATO, held phone calls with the leaders of the two Nordic countries on Saturday and discussed his concerns.
Turkey says Sweden and Finland are home to people linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group and followers of Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt.
“We understand that Turkey has some of its own security concerns regarding terrorism… We think these issues can be resolved. There may also be some issues that are not directly linked to Finland and Sweden, but more to other NATO members,” Haavisto said.
Erdogan told Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson on Saturday that Ankara expected concrete steps to address its concerns, according to the Turkish presidency. He also said an arms export embargo imposed on Turkey after its 2019 incursion into Syria should be lifted, he added.
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said on Saturday he had had “open and direct” telephone conversations with Erdogan.
“I stated that as NATO allies, Finland and Turkey will commit to each other’s security and our relationship will grow stronger,” Niinisto tweeted after the call.
Erdogan also spoke with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Saturday, telling him that Ankara would not look positively on Sweden and Finland’s NATO proposals unless they clearly show cooperation in the fight against terrorism and other issues.
(Edited by Catherine Evans and Nick Macfie)
Source: CNN Brasil
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