NATO’s secretary general announced on Wednesday that he would bring together “in the coming days” officials from Sweden, Finland and Turkey to try to overcome Turkish opposition to the two Nordic countries joining in upstream of the summit of the Atlantic Alliance.
“We are of course in close contact with Turkey, an important NATO ally, and with the two countries that have applied to join NATO, Finland and Sweden,” said Jens Stoltenberg. , during a press conference with the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken in Washington.
“I will call a meeting in a few days” in Brussels “with senior officials”, to “ensure that progress is made on the candidacies”, he added.
The boss of the Western military alliance said he “intended” to achieve a result “before the NATO summit” scheduled for June 28 to 30 in Madrid. “At the same time, I know that to make progress you need the agreement of the 30 allies” members of the organization, he acknowledged.
As a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland presented their candidacy for NATO membership on May 18. But Turkey opened a crisis within the Alliance, of which it is a member, by opposing the accession of these two countries which received the support of the overwhelming majority of the other Member States.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan notably accuses Stockholm and Helsinki of hosting “terrorists” from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“Finland and Sweden have made it clear that they are ready to discuss to respond to the concerns raised by Turkey”, “in particular about the threats posed to Turkey by the PKK”, explained Jens Stoltenberg, ensuring to take this ” very seriously”.
“We know that no other NATO ally has suffered as much from terrorist attacks as Turkey,” he added.
He insisted on the status of Ankara, an “important ally” due to its “geographical position on the border of Iraq and Syria” which gave it a strategic role in the fight against the jihadist group Islamic State, but also on the shores of the Black Sea “near Russia”.
“I am hopeful of finding a way forward,” insisted the NATO chief.
Antony Blinken gave his strong “support” to Jens Stoltenberg’s diplomatic efforts and also said he was “very confident”.
The American Secretary of State, however, rejected any link between the negotiations to supply American fighter planes to Turkey and the lifting of the Turkish blockage to the Swedish and Finnish candidacies.
“These are two separate issues,” he said.