THE Finland and Sweden will send representatives to Ankara tomorrow Wednesday, in an effort to bend the Turkish resistance to their membership in NATOas announced by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland Peka Haavisto.
“We are sending our delegations to Ankara, both Sweden and Finland. “This will happen tomorrow, so the dialogue is ongoing.” said Haavisto speaking to a Davos panel.
It is recalled that the delegations of the two countries, were to travel to Turkey last Monday. The trip was canceled after a resounding “no” from Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan who told them not to bother going to Ankara. Fiery consultations followed in the previous days and finally, according to the Finnish side, it seems that the appointment was “closed” for tomorrow.
“We understand that Turkey has some of its own concerns about terrorism (…) We believe that these issues can be resolved. “Maybe there are some issues that are not directly related to Finland and Sweden, but more to other NATO countries.” stressed today the Finnish Minister.
US: Sweden and Finland will be able to resolve Turkish concerns
The issue was also mentioned by US Undersecretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks expressing Washington ‘s belief that the two countries will be able to reduce Turkey’ s objections.
“We are convinced that Finland and Sweden will be able to resolve these (concerns) directly with the Turks”she pointed out while speaking on the side of her Norwegian counterpart from Oslo.
Ankara claims that Sweden and Finland sponsor members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and with supporters of the former imam, the self-exiled in the US Fethullah Gulenwhom Turkey accuses of orchestrating the failed coup in 2016.
And the 30 NATO member countries must give their approval in order for a new member to join the Alliance.
On Saturday, the leaders of Turkey, Sweden and Finland discussed Ankara’s concerns.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Anderson on Saturday that he expects concrete measures to be taken by Stockholm to allay Turkish concerns.
THE Finnish President Sauli Niinisto He noted that he had “an open and direct” telephone conversation with Erdogan.
The Turkish president also spoke with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, to whom he said that Ankara would consider the demands of Sweden and Finland only if they were clearly willing to co-operate on counter-terrorism issues.
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