Discussions between Turkish officials and representatives from Sweden and Finland made little progress in overcoming Turkey’s opposition to their NATO registration bids.
Last week, diplomats from Sweden and Finland met in Turkey to try and strike an agreement that would permit a historical extension of the Western alliance in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The week prior, the two Nordic countries submitted their official applications to join NATO to increase their level of protection.
All 30 NATO members must unanimously accept new member countries. Turkey contested the membership applications of Finland and Sweden, claiming that the countries harbor members of the militant group Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and other individuals that Turkey considered terrorists. Turkey also contests the move because both Nordic nations ceased arms exports to Turkey in 2019.
Sweden and Finland ended all arms exports to Turkey after its 2019 incursion into Syria against the Kurdish YPG militia. Turkey regards the YPG as identical to the PKK, viewing both as terrorist groups.
“It is not an easy process,” a senior Turkish official told Reuters. “They need to take concrete steps that will be difficult. Further negotiations will continue. But a date doesn’t seem very close.”
At a news conference in Washington D.C. on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he is confident Finland and Sweden will overcome Turkey’s objections and join NATO swiftly. With a possibility of the move being official before a scheduled summit of alliance leaders in Madrid at the end of June.
“The United States fully supports Finland and Sweden joining the alliance, and I continue to be confident that both will soon be NATO members,” Blinken said. “We look forward to being able to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”
Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto was at the press conference with Blinken and added that he has no reason to believe they cannot address Turkey’s concerns. Haavisto said his country and Sweden had “good negotiations” with Turkey, and those discussions would continue with the goal of resolving the problems before the NATO summit in Madrid.
“We agreed to continue to those talks,” Haavisto said. “We think that these problems can be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some results could be achieved before the NATO summit.”