Turkey has attested Sweden and Finland “progress” with regard to the planned NATO accession of both countries. In a statement published yesterday in Stockholm, the three countries congratulated each other “for intensifying cooperation (…) and the progress made by Finland and Sweden in complying with the memorandum”. The latter was signed in June on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Madrid.
“Sweden has fully respected the trilateral memorandum and is moving closer to NATO,” Swedish negotiator Oscar Stenstrom said following the meeting in Stockholm announced by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this month.
Allegations mainly in the direction of Sweden
After the Russian attack on Ukraine, Sweden and Finland broke with their decades-long tradition of military alliance neutrality and applied for NATO membership in May. Each of the 30 NATO member countries must ratify accession. Only Hungary and Turkey have yet to agree.
Turkey has threatened to block NATO accession if the two countries do not respond to Ankara’s demands. With regard to members of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Ankara in particular accuses Sweden of being a haven for “terrorists”.
