The Turkish president will meet this Tuesday with his Finnish counterpart and the Swedish prime minister in Madrid to discuss Sweden and Finland’s candidacy for NATO, the Finnish Presidency announced on Monday.
Turkey announced a blockade of the Swedish and Finnish candidacies in mid-Mayand it is expected that the issue will be one of the highlights of the Madrid summit, which takes place from Tuesday to Thursday in the Spanish capital.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s meeting with the Finn Sauli Niinisto and the Swedish Magdalena Andersson will take place at the start of the Atlantic Alliance summit, in the presence of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the Finnish Presidency reported on the social network. twitterquoted by the Spanish agency EFE.
President @Ninisto tapaa huomenna Madridissa Turkin presidentti Erdoğanin, Ruotsin pääministeri Anderssonin ja Naton pääsihteeri Stoltenbergin. Päämiestason tapaamista edeltää tänään Suomen, Ruotsin ja Turkin virkamiestason neuvottelukierros Naton isännöimänä Brysselissä.
— TPKanslia (@TPKanslia) June 27, 2022
According to Helsinki, new negotiations are also planned for this Monday to try to overcome the Turkish veto, at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Turkey accuses Sweden of harboring militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an organization that Ankara considers terrorist.
Turkish president says there is no progress in negotiations for Sweden to join NATO
Ankara also demands the lifting of the arms export blockades by Stockholm and Helsinki after Turkey’s military intervention in northern Syria. in October 2019, the tightening of Swedish anti-terrorism legislation and the extradition of several people whom it describes as terrorists.
An Erdogan spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, told a Turkish television channel that Turkey’s participation in the Madrid summit does not mean that Ankara is backing down from its positions.
“The ball is now in your court,” Kalin said, referring to Sweden and Finland.
The Swedish prime minister is also expected to travel to Brussels to meet Stoltenberg ahead of the Madrid summit, her office said.
Andersson spoke to Erdogan by phone on Saturday, but Ankara said there was no progress.
Sweden and Finland applied to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on May 18, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, ending a historic policy of neutrality.
Source: Observadora
