According to a statement issued by the President’s Office on Tuesday evening, Turkey supports Finland’s and Sweden’s applications to join NATO. Sauli Niinistö.
The announcement came after Niinistö together with the Prime Minister of Sweden Magdalena Anderssonmet with the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan On the sidelines of the NATO summit in Madrid, where stalled NATO and Swedish applications for NATO membership were discussed.
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland Pekka Haavisto (Green) is also part of the Finnish delegation.
"As a result of the meeting, our Foreign Ministers signed a tripartite memorandum confirming that Türkiye will support Finland’s and Sweden’s invitation to join NATO this week at the Madrid Summit." The opinion stated and added that the 30 current members of the union would agree on the stages of accession over the next two days.
The Secretary General of NATO ratified the agreement Jens Stoltenbergwho said that Turkey’s concerns about Finland’s and Sweden’s membership have now been addressed.
"I am pleased to announce that we now have an agreement that will pave the way for Finland and Sweden to join NATO." Stoltenberg said.
Due to lengthy discussions, the president’s press conference was hours later than planned.
In May, after the Nordic countries submitted their applications to the military alliance, Erdoğan suspended the process and accused the peoples "protection of terrorists," drawing up a list of requirements that had to be met before it could allow applications to be processed.
The application process requires the unanimous approval of all 30 Alliance members. Turkey is so far the only NATO member to have postponed applications from Finland and Sweden.
Tripartite document
According to Helsingin Sanomat, the leaders of Finland, Sweden and Turkey drafted a tripartite document addressing Turkey’s concerns following recent diplomatic talks.
Just before Tuesday’s meeting, Niinistö said he was neither optimistic nor pessimistic about the situation and added that the most important thing is to start negotiations.
Finland’s and Sweden’s applications for NATO membership are not on the official agenda of the meeting, and a number of other issues will be discussed at the three-day summit, including plans to continue to support Ukraine in defending Russia against the ongoing attack.
At the summit, NATO members will adopt a new 10-year strategic concept, a document that identifies the security challenges facing the Alliance and also outlines the political and military actions needed to address them.
Source: The Nordic Page