(Istanbul) Turkey will only ratify NATO membership of Sweden and Finland once the necessary steps have been taken by the two states, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday during a meeting with the boss. of the Atlantic Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg.
Posted at 3:03 p.m.
“President Erdogan stressed that the pace and timing of the ratification process […] will be determined by the measures that these countries still have to take”, indicated the Turkish presidency in a press release at the end of this meeting in Istanbul, which was completely closed to the press.
The Turkish head of state, who is due to receive Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Ankara on Tuesday, has been blocking the entry of Sweden and Finland into the Atlantic Alliance since May.
Turkey accuses the two Nordic countries of protecting in particular Kurdish fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), considered terrorists by Ankara.
To overcome Turkey’s objections, the three countries signed a memorandum of understanding on the sidelines of the NATO summit in June in Madrid, relating in particular to extradition requests demanded by Ankara.
Mr. Stoltenberg “welcomed the significant and concrete steps already taken by the two countries to put the memorandum into practice and stressed that their membership would strengthen NATO,” the Atlantic Alliance said in a statement on Friday evening.
The NATO Secretary General had called on Thursday in Istanbul to welcome Sweden and Finland to the Alliance in order to “send a clear message to Russia”, during a joint press conference with the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs , Mevlüt Cavusoglu.
To date, 28 member states — out of 30 — of the Atlantic Alliance have ratified the accession of the two Nordic countries, which must be approved unanimously.
Apart from Turkey, only Hungary has yet to give its final agreement.