Finnish, Swedish and Turkish officials met in Brussels on Monday to discuss Turkey’s security concerns in the Nordic applications for NATO membership.
Ankara has accused Sweden and Finland of retaining suspected members of the Kurdish militant group PKK. The Turkish authorities have also condemned previous decisions to ban arms exports to Turkey because of its involvement in the Syrian war.
The NATO-led talks sought to resolve Turkey’s opposition to Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to the military alliance.
Foreign minister Pekka Haavisto (Green) said at a press conference after the meeting on Monday that Turkey had questioned the two Nordic terrorist laws. Finland is trying to show that Finnish legislation meets the criteria of other NATO countries in this respect, Haavisto said.
Clear progress
Although Haavisto said it was difficult to predict what would happen in the ongoing talks, he did not consider it likely that Turkey’s concerns would be resolved before the NATO summit in Madrid on 29-30. June.
Although the day’s discussions clearly progressed on some issues, there is still a long way to go to reach an agreement on others, Mr President Sauli Niinistöthe office said Monday.
By Petri HakkarainenAdviser to the President on Foreign and Security Policy, negotiations lasted nearly five hours.
Source: The Nordic Page