Sweden, Finland and Turkiye hold NATO talks, agree to more meetings

  10 March 2023    Read: 585
Sweden, Finland and Turkiye hold NATO talks, agree to more meetings

Turkiye has acknowledged that Sweden and Finland have taken concrete steps to meet Ankara's concerns over their bids to join NATO and the three will hold further meetings, Sweden's chief negotiator in the accession process said on Thursday, reuters reported.

Sweden and Finland applied last year to join NATO, but faced unexpected objections from Turkiye which says the two countries harbour members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), considered a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies.

"We see that Turkiye recognized that both Sweden and Finland have taken concrete steps in this agreement, which is a good sign," chief negotiator Oscar Stenstrom told a news conference at NATO headquarters after trilateral talks resumed.

"A little step forward, the talks have restarted and we have agreed that we will continue to meet and I can't say exactly when."

President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said steps taken by Sweden and Finland to address Ankara's security concerns were positive, but not enough for Turkiye's ratification of their NATO bid.


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