Finland will host a meeting with Sweden and Turkey in August dedicated to the memorandum signed by the three countries to open the two Nordic countries’ access to NATO despite initial opposition from Ankara, the Finnish Foreign Minister announced on Friday.
“Representatives from Finland, Sweden and Turkey will meet in Finland in August,” Pekka Haavisto told reporters.
Break with the traditional policy of neutrality
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had previously announced that a meeting between the three countries would take place on August 26, but did not specify where.
Finland and Sweden renounced their traditional policy of neutrality when they announced their desire to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February.
Its candidacy for the NATO accession process has already been ratified by the United States and more than half of the 30 NATO members. Only Turkey opposed his candidacy, demanding concessions from Finland and Sweden.
During the meeting, discussions will continue based on the memorandum that the three countries signed in June in Madrid, said Pekka Haavisto. The signing of this memorandum made it possible to lift Ankara’s veto on the entry of the two Nordic countries into the Alliance.
A meeting scheduled for August
The text confirms that Stockholm and Helsinki consider the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) a terrorist organization and that the two capitals commit not to support various groups hated by Ankara, including the armed Kurdish YPG movement in Syria.
In this text, Sweden and Finland agreed to consider Ankara’s extradition requests for suspects accused by Turkey of being linked to the 2016 coup attempt and Kurdish militants.
Last week, Sweden announced the first extradition of a Turk, but the Turkish justice minister said on Thursday that this announcement fell far short of promises made by Stockholm.
Source: BFM TV
