Discussing NATO Membership, Turkey Holds Meetings With Finland And Sweden Today

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg shows membership applications for Sweden and Finland. (Source: NATO)

Turkey will hold a fourth meeting to discuss Sweden's access as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) today to comply with a trilateral memorandum in Madrid last year along with Finland, which has obtained Turkish approval.

The Turkish Communications Directorate said the meeting held at the Turkish Presidential Complex would be chaired by Chief Advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had just been appointed by Akif Badminton, Kryptal!

In addition, the meeting will also be attended by Director of the Private Office of the Secretary General of NATO Stian Jenssen; Secretary of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jan Knutsson and Permanent Secretary of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jukka Salovaara.

This meeting came after the Anti-Terror Law issued by Sweden in November took effect from June 1. The law allows authorities to try individuals who support terrorist groups. It is hoped that Ankara could approve Sweden's membership.

Previously, a number of NATO foreign ministers hoped Turkey would approve Sweden's access ahead of the summit held in Lithuania's capital, Vilnius on July 11-12.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was appropriate for all NATO members, including Turkey, to raise their security concerns over NATO's expansion, as Sweden wants to join the transatlantic alliance.

"This is a process and it is appropriate during the process, every member of the alliance can convey any concerns or problems that may exist," he said at a joint press conference with his Italian counterpart, quoted by the Daily Sabah on June 14.

Blinken acknowledged the speed of the Swedish and Finnish membership submission process, saying, "If you look at this historically, the process for Finland and Sweden is very, very fast, and it should be, given the fact that the two countries have become NATO's old partners, among the strongest democracies in the world, which are members of the European Union," Foreign Minister Blinken said.

"And of course, the challenges posed to European security by Russian aggression in Ukraine make this issue even more urgent," he added.

Sweden also took concrete steps to ease Turkey's security concerns. On Monday, the Swedish government decided to extradite a man convicted of drug offenses in Turkey in 2013. He had lived in Sweden for five years.

According to the Aftonbladet newspaper, the man demanded that he not be extradited to Turkey, citing his support for the PKK terrorist group and downloading ByLock, an encrypted messaging application belonging to the Gulen Terror Group (FETmen) which was the mastermind behind the July 15, 2016 coup attempt in Turkey.