Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto expressed his optimism that “sooner or later Finland and Sweden will join NATO” and said talks with the Turkish government would continue as Ankara threatens to block the two nations from joining. join the defensive alliance.
In an interview with DailyExpertNews in Washington, DC, Friday, Haavisto said he expected to tackle the topic of Finland’s NATO membership and overcoming Turkey’s current opposition later in the day in his talks with US Secretary of State Antony. Blinken would be discussed during his meeting. he was “pretty sure” that other NATO countries had also spoken to Turkey.
Delegations from Finland and Sweden – both of which formally applied for NATO membership last week – traveled to Turkey earlier this week for NATO accession talks. All current NATO members must approve new members.
Haavisto, who did not attend the talks, called it a “good meeting” and said it lasted five hours. Haavisto indicated that there are European and Finnish laws and policies guiding Finnish actions based on Turkey’s main demands – designating the PKK as a terrorist organization, lifting arms export controls, extradition of Kurdish militants Turkey considers terrorists . However, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said after the delegation’s visit that “if Turkey’s security concerns are not answered with concrete steps, the process cannot proceed”.
Haavisto said “there was an agreement to continue those talks”, but a next round of talks has not yet been arranged.
“From our perspective, the timetable is essential, as we are of course looking forward to the NATO summit in Madrid,” which is at the end of June, “and we hope that at the NATO summit the new members will be welcomed, in any case, and the ‘ NATO’s Open Door Policy would be confirmed, but it is of course up to each member state to influence the process as well,” he said.
Finland’s and Sweden’s decisions to join NATO were a major shift brought about by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
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