Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday that Ankara supports NATO strengthening.
Çavuşoğlu said at a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who arrived in Turkey, that he discussed with the secretary general the situation in Ukraine, the possible extension of the “grain deal” and the situation around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.
“We also voiced Ankara’s expectations regarding Finland and Sweden’s membership of NATO. Turkey as a member of the alliance will continue to provide the necessary support for the strengthening of NATO,” Çavuşoğlu said.
“We have discussed with a number of NATO member states the issue of separately considering Finland’s application,” the Turkish foreign minister added.
He said Ankara has not yet seen Sweden taking decisive steps to fulfill its NATO membership obligations and that Ankara has no special complaints against Finland.
Earlier, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said that against the background of the Quran burning action the country’s NATO membership process was suspended. He expressed the hope that agreements with Ankara would be reached at the summit of the alliance foreign ministries in Vilnius in July. Ankara’s source told RIA Novosti earlier that the trilateral mechanism on the Swedish and Finnish NATO membership process was suspended indefinitely at the request of the Turkish side.
Finland and Sweden’s joint application to join NATO has already been approved by 28 countries out of 30. Turkish authorities had earlier said they were ready to approve Finland’s membership of NATO, but not Sweden’s. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Turkey had not received a proposal from Finland for a separate bid from Sweden. Finnish authorities have repeatedly stressed that the joint membership of Finland and Sweden in the North Atlantic Alliance is in the common interest of all NATO member states and the two Nordic countries only intend to join the Alliance together. The ratification process for Finland and Sweden’s joint application to join NATO slowed down earlier this year due to protests in Stockholm that complicated relations with Turkey.
The NATO secretary general, at the February 14-15 meeting of the alliance’s defense ministers, said he would recommend that Turkey ratify Sweden’s and Finland’s applications at the same time, but he did not consider their joint accession to be a matter of principle. In his view, the most important thing is for these countries to join NATO and strengthen collective defence and security with their help.
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