NATO doesn’t see the Madrid summit on June 28-30 as a deadline to approve Finnish, Swedish membership bids as Turkey’s concerns are being considered, the alliance’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday.
"The summit in Madrid was never a deadline," he said at a joint news conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in Helsinki, when asked if the concerns will be settled by the time of the summit.
"Turkey has raised some concerns and then we sit down and we are working on them as we speak," Stoltenberg continued. "We have frequent, regular contacts with Turkey, and with Finland and Sweden, to look into the issues that Turkey has raised."
"Turkey is an important ally," the general secretary said. "Turkey has played a key role in our fight against terrorist groups like ISIS / DAESH (banned in Russia). We also need to take into account that no other NATO ally hosts more refugees than Turkey."
"We have to remember that what we face is a more dangerous world," Stoltenberg said. He said Russia is trying to "re-establish a world order with spheres of influence" and that was a reason that triggered the Finnish decision to join NATO. Turkey, he said, supports NATO’s Open Door policy.
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