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Turkey – NATO: Documents submitted by Sweden ‘do not meet our expectations’

The documents sent by Sweden and Finland to Turkey regarding their NATO bids do not live up to Ankara’s expectations and its concerns must be addressed, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoλουlu said today.

The Turkish Foreign Minister’s statements were made at a joint press conference with his Norwegian and Irish counterparts after their meetings in Ankara.

Tsavousoglu said Finland and Sweden’s responses did not address Turkish concerns, and Ankara briefed Stockholm, Helsinki and NATO on the shortcomings.

“We are one of the strongest supporters of NATO’s open door policy,” he said, noting that Ankara was aware of the “reasonable concerns” of both Sweden and Finland that had pushed for membership.

However, the Turkish minister noted that it is vital that all three countries make an effort to understand and support each other, stressing that one of the problems is the restrictions imposed by the other two on Turkey’s defense industry.

“These (restrictions) must also be lifted, this is our expectation,” he said, adding that these issues should be resolved through talks and not through any kind of sanctions.

Sweden and Finland applied to join the Alliance last month in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Their demands are met with unexpected opposition from Turkey, which accuses the two countries of protecting fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a “terrorist” organization by Turkey and its Western allies, and of a previous decision to block them. what arms exports to Turkey.

Earlier in the day, the Turkish foreign minister said Ankara was awaiting a “written response” from Sweden and Finland before lifting its objections to NATO membership.

Source: AMPE

Source: Capital

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