Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Thursday that his country opposes the accession of Finland and Sweden to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“We have informed our friends about the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, and we adhere to this position,” Erdogan said in a statement issued by the official Anadolu news agency.
The Turkish president said Ankara “follows a policy of balance in relations with Russia and Ukraine and has no plans to sever ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin or his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.”
New countries can join NATO only with the consent of all NATO members, including Turkey.
Ankara accuses both Helsinki and Stockholm of being lenient with Turkish Kurdish rebels affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a terrorist organization classified in Turkey.
“It is unacceptable for allies or those who want to join the coalition to support the terrorist organizations that are targeting us,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşo اوlu said Wednesday after meeting with his US counterpart Anthony Blinken.
“It is also unacceptable for them to restrict arms sales to an ally,” he said, referring to Sweden’s refusal to sell arms to Turkey.
The White House said Wednesday that the United States “is confident that Sweden and Finland will have an effective mechanism for joining (NATO) and the ability to respond to Turkey’s concerns.”
Source: Lebanon Debate
