“Turkey has legitimate security concerns about terrorism that we have to deal with,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
At his invitation General Secretary Jens Stoltenbergsenior officials from Turkey, Finland and Sweden met with senior NATO officials at the Alliance’s headquarters in Brussels.
Under his chairmanship Stian Jensen, Director of the Secretary-General’s Private Officethe talks focused on security concerns raised by Turkey in order to make progress on NATO membership applications from Finland and Sweden.
“I welcome the constructive meeting that took place today on the historic applications of Finland and Sweden to join NATO,” said Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
He added that “the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO would make the Alliance stronger and the whole Euro-Atlantic area safer. Turkey has legitimate security concerns about terrorism that we have to deal with. “So we will continue our talks on Finland and Sweden’s applications for NATO membership and I look forward to finding a way forward as soon as possible.”
The Turkish delegation was headed by Ibrahim Kalin, Representative of the Turkish President and Special Adviser to the President of the Republic of Turkey. The Finnish delegation was led by Petri Hakkarainen, Director of Foreign and Security Policy at the Office of the President of the Republic of Finland, and the Swedish delegation was led by Oscar Strenstrom, Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Security .
“Greece has been vetoing the accession of Northern Macedonia for 11 years. Macedonia had to change the name of the country. After completing some steps, Greece said “yes” to FYROM’s accession to NATO. Being a member of the alliance is an important step. It is extremely important that Sweden and Finland abandon this policy. They will review safety rules and pass new laws. The faster they take steps, the faster the process will be. “We will see it together in the coming days,” said Erdogan’s spokesman.