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Sweden and Finland are trying to persuade Turkey not to thwart their bid for NATO membership.
For this reason, delegations from both Nordic countries held talks in Ankara on the Turkish side’s objections that it might block their initiative with its veto.
The Swedish delegation, led by Secretary of State Oscar Stenstrom, and the Finnish delegation, led by his counterpart Jukka Salovaara, met with Turkish President’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin and Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal at the presidential palace in Ankara.
Kalin later said that Turkey had noted a “positive approach” from both countries regarding the lifting of restrictions on arms exports. However, he said Turkey would not agree to them joining NATO unless they take special steps to address Ankara’s objections.
“We have made it very clear that if Turkey’s security concerns are not met with concrete steps in a timely manner, the process will not move forward,” he said. given shortly after Turkey had reinforced its threats to block this attempt.
Ibrahim Kalin: If the NATO alliance, a security alliance, has to fight with common threats such as terrorism, we must be in agreement, because it can never be acceptable for the allies to impose sanctions on each other. This would only weaken the alliance and make our enemies happy.
The two countries’ demands to join the alliance as protection against Russian-feared aggression would end decades of military neutrality. Finland – which shares a 1,300-kilometer border with Russia – and its neighbor Sweden are worried about Ukraine’s invasion of Ukraine.
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