On Thursday, President Sauli Niinistö said that he himself was ready to take part in finding a solution to the dispute between Finland and Sweden over NATO membership with Turkey.
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson stressed to the Turkish president on Friday Recep Tayyip Erdoğanillethat Finnish and Swedish membership would be a valuable addition to NATO’s defense alliance.
A Johnson spokesman also said the prime minister had suggested in his call to Erdoğan that he discuss possible concerns with Sweden, Finland and other NATO countries ahead of next month’s NATO meeting in Madrid.
Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership talks have not been able to begin due to Turkish opposition.
One reason is that Turkey claims that Finland and Sweden support the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The Turkish newspaper Dünya said yesterday on Friday that Erdoğan would discuss the topic with Finland today.
Erdoğan said Turkey was still of the opinion that countries accused by Turkey of supporting terrorist organizations should not be admitted to NATO as a security organization. In his comments, Erdoğan suggested that accepting the membership of Finland and Sweden would be an indirect grant of membership to a terrorist organization. Mr Erdoğan said that he had set out Turkey’s position clearly and unequivocally.
In the story, Erdogan doesn’t mention who he’s going to talk to. The Office of the President of the Republic did not comment. According to it, the practice is to inform the President’s calls afterwards.
Niinistö is ready to communicate
President Sauli Niinistö said on Thursday that it was ready to take part in finding a solution to the dispute over membership of Finland and Sweden with Turkey.
– I’ll attend, too. I can’t say exactly where or when, but after (Turkey’s demands) have been clarified, I think higher-level communication is also needed, Niinistö said during his visit to Washington on Thursday.
Turkey has drawn up a long list of requirements for Finland’s and Sweden’s membership of NATO. The list includes lifting the arms embargo and returning terrorist suspects to Turkey. The content of the demands has varied in recent days in Erdogan’s speeches as well as in the Turkish state media.
Turkey began stalling the processing of Finland’s and Sweden’s applications for NATO membership on Wednesday, after Finland and Sweden submitted their membership applications together.