Turkey is negotiating with Sweden and Finland to join NATO and fight terrorism | Abroad

“Finland and Sweden reiterated their commitment, enshrined in the tripartite memorandum (signed at the NATO summit in Madrid in June, ed.), to show solidarity and full cooperation with Turkey in the fight against all forms and manifestations of terrorism,” the Turkish spokesperson said. Presidential press release.

Since mid-May, Turkey has halted the accession process of all of the Nordic countries. Ankara accused them of supporting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). At the end of June, on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Madrid, the three countries signed a memorandum, paving the way for the accession process. But Ankara has set conditions in return, such as handing over people Turkey designates as “terrorists”.

After a meeting on Friday in Helsinki, Finland’s foreign ministry said a new trilateral meeting will take place in the fall. The brief statement said that experts from the ministries of foreign affairs, interior, justice and defense in the three countries attended the meeting.

So far, the parliaments of 23 NATO member states, including Belgium on July 20, have ratified the accession of the two northern countries. The Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey have yet to do so, according to a list maintained by the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

Stockholm and Helsinki abandoned their traditional neutrality and announced their intention to join NATO after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.