Jens Stoltenberg’s trip and the meeting with the Turkish president did not produce any result on the issue of the two Nordic countries joining NATO
Turkey will not ratify the membership of Sweden and Finland in the NATO only after the necessary measures are taken by these two countries, the Turkish president said tonight Recep Tayyip Erdoganin the meeting he had with the Secretary General of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg.
“President Erdogan emphasized that the pace and timing of the ratification process (…) will be determined by the measures these countries have yet to take,” the Turkish presidency said in its statement.
The meeting took place in Constantinopleclosed doors to journalists.
The Turkish president, who will welcome Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristerson in Ankara on Tuesday, has been blocking the integration of the two countries since May. Turkey accuses Finland and Sweden of harboring Kurdish fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara calls terrorist groups.
In order for Turkey to lift its objections, the three countries signed a memorandum on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Madrid in June, which mainly concerns Ankara’s request for the extradition of suspects.
THE Stoltenberg “He welcomed the significant and concrete steps already taken by the two countries to implement the memorandum and underlined that their accession would strengthen NATO,” the Alliance said in its own statement.
Yesterday, at a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Stoltenberg called for Sweden and Finland to be admitted to NATO to “send a clear message to Russia.”
To date 28 of NATO’s 30 members have ratified the accession which must be approved unanimously. Only Turkey and Hungary have not given the “green light”.
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