Turkey drops veto on Sweden, Finland bids to join NATO
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Turkey lifted its veto over Finland and Sweden’s applications to join NATO on Tuesday, paving the way for the Nordic countries to join the alliance, after the three nations agreed to protect each other’s security.
Finland and Sweden formally applied to join the NATO on May 18 prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but were met with huge rejection from Turkey.
The agreement, which took place a day before NATO’s annual summit in Madrid, ended weeks of disputes between Turkey and the two countries.
Turkey has long accused Sweden of housing what it said militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which launched an armed insurgency against Turkey in 1984, but Sweden denies the allegations.
It was also upset over arm embargos the two nations imposed on Turkey following its invasion of northern parts of Syria in 2019.
Any NATO enlargement must be approved by all 30 members.
NATO said a trilateral deal had been reached at a meeting between Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Sauli Niinisto of Finland and the Swedish prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, in the Spanish capital.
“Turkey, Finland and Sweden have signed a memorandum that addresses Turkey’s concerns, including around arms exports and the fight against terrorism,” said Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO.
Finland and Sweden affirmed in the deal there were no national arms embargoes relating to sales to Turkey and all three countries said they would work together on extradition requests regarding the PKK figures.
Stoltenberg said the Nordic countries had agreed to a “further amending their domestic legislation” to grant Turkey the anti-terror reassurances it had sought, and would be “cracking down on PKK activities” and “entering into an agreement with Turkey on extradition.”
However, even with a formal invitation granted, the applications still have to be ratified by all NATO’s 30 member states, a process that could take up to a year.