Turkish MFA confirms arrival of Swedish and Finnish Delegations-UPDATED

Turkish MFA confirms arrival of Swedish and Finnish Delegations-UPDATED
# 24 May 2022 14:52 (UTC +04:00)

Delegations of Sweden and Finland will visit Turkiye on May 25 regarding NATO membership applications of these countries, APA reports citing Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"Consultations on the NATO membership applications of Sweden and Finland will be held in Ankara on Wednesday, 25 May 2022 between our delegation headed by Ambassador Ibrahim Kalin, Presidential Spokesperson and Ambassador Sedat Onal, Deputy Foreign Minister, and the Swedish and Finnish Delegations headed by Mr. Oscar Stenström, State Secretary, Office of the Prime Ministry of Sweden and Mr. Jukka Salovaara, Permanent State Secretary of Finland respectively," noted MFA.

*** 14:13

Finland and Sweden will send delegations to Ankara on Wednesday to try to resolve Turkish opposition to their applications for membership of the NATO military alliance, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Tuesday, APA reports citing Reuters.

"We are sending our delegations to visit Ankara, actually both Sweden and Finland. This will happen tomorrow, so the dialogue is continuing," Haavisto said during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forumin Davos.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has objected to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, held phone calls with the leaders of the two Nordic countries on Saturday and discussed his concerns.

Turkey says Sweden and Finland harbour people linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group and followers of Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt.

"We understand that Turkey has some of their own security concerns vis a vis terrorism ... We think that these issues can be settled. There might be also some issues that are not linked directly to Finland and Sweden but more to other NATO members," Haavisto said.

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