Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday renewed his threat to block NATO bids from Sweden and Finland, saying he would not give his approval until the two Nordic countries kept promises he said were made to Ankara.
“Until the promises made to our country are upheld, we will maintain our principled position,” Erdogan said in a speech to parliament in Ankara.
“We are closely monitoring whether Sweden’s and Finland’s promises are kept or not, and the final decision will of course be up to our great Riksdag,” he added without elaborating.
Ankara initially said it would veto the two countries’ membership of the Western alliance, and Erdogan accused them of providing safe havens to Kurdish militants operating in Turkey and promoting what he called “terrorism.”
After negotiations, Erdogan said he would drop his objections but hinted he could still block their membership bid if they failed to follow through on promises, some of which were secret.
Membership bids must be approved by all 30 NATO members. Only Hungary and Turkey have not yet sent their membership bids to their parliaments for ratification.
The historic changes by Sweden and Finland came in the face of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine in February and other aggressive moves by the Kremlin in the region.
Public opinion in the Nordic countries quickly turned in favor of NATO membership after the invasion.
Some material for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
Source: sn.dk
