High-ranking officials from Finland and Sweden started a negotiation process with representatives of Turkey regarding the country’s security requirements. The negotiations may decide whether Turkey will ratify Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership or not.
According to the participants, the mutual negotiations between Finland, Sweden and Turkey, which were agreed at the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June, began in a constructive spirit. The first meeting was organized in Königstedt Manor in Vantaa.
Turkey did not put any new demands on the negotiating table there.
– No new issues came up in the negotiations. I believe that all parties were left with the feeling that the discussions deepened their understanding on many issues. It is important that security issues, especially terrorism, can be discussed as future NATO member states, State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jukka Salovaara commented to .
Both Finland and Sweden have been silent on the discussions with Turkey at the ministerial and state leadership level. Little comments are given tongue in cheek.
Turkey has demanded the return of dozens of Kurds it considers terrorists from the Nordic countries. Sweden and Finland have not agreed to the demands.
Prime Minister of Sweden Magdalena AnderssonFinnish President Sauli Niinistö and the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan adopted a memorandum of understanding in Madrid. Countries use it to find solutions to pressing issues. The most difficult of them are related to the security requirements presented by Turkey.
The meeting in Königstedt was the first official-level negotiation on the implementation of the document. The negotiations were attended by representatives from Turkey, both from the presidential administration and the country’s Ministry of the Interior and Justice.
– Meetings will continue throughout the fall in various expert formations and will rotate between these three countries, Salovaara said.
Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership has so far been ratified by 23 of NATO’s 30 member countries. Of the remaining countries, Turkey is considered the biggest question mark.
The Turkish parliament begins its autumn term in October. It has not yet been announced when it would possibly vote on the ratifications.