Delegations from Finland and Sweden will come to Turkey this Wednesday (25) to discuss the two Scandinavian countries’ requests for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The mission’s aim is to try to overturn Ankara’s objections to Helsinki and Stockholm’s participation in the Euro-Atlantic military alliance.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses the two European countries of taking refuge in so-called “terrorists” from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a movement fighting to establish a Kurdish state.
To join NATO, Finland and Sweden will need unanimous approval from their member states. “NATO will know how to solve this problem,” Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said this Tuesday, (24) during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
We have good answers to give and we stand by the global fight against terrorism,” he said. Finland and Sweden maintained a historic policy of military neutrality between the West and Moscow, but abandoned this strategy after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is not part of NATO.
The two countries are expected to attend the next alliance meeting in Madrid at the end of June, although the membership process is still ongoing.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he did not see Finland and Sweden joining NATO as a “threat”, but warned that Moscow’s response would depend on the organization’s military presence in both countries.
source: Noticias
