Brussles: NATO chief Stoltenberg to hold meeting with officials from Turkey, Finland, Sweden

The Secretary-General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, is likely to hold a discussion with the officials from Turkey, Finland and Sweden in Brussels next week to talk on Ankara’s reservations about the two Nordic nations’ bids to join the Western military alliance.

During a visit to Washington, Stoltenberg said he would convene officials from all of the three nations in Brussels “in the following days… to ensure that we are making progress on the applications of Finland and Sweden to join NATO,” adding that both nations were “ready to sit down and to address” Turkey’s concerns.

As per the reports, that meeting will take place at NATO’s Brussels headquarters next week.

In the fallout from the Russia’s full-scale invasion, Finland and Sweden launched official applications to enter NATO, but Turkey has raised obstacles to their joining, pressuring them to cut off their support of members of a minority militant group called the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which the Ankara government considers terrorists.

During a telephonic conversation on Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said to NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg that Sweden and Finland should say “very openly as well as clearly that they had given up favouring terrorism.” Erdoğan called his government’s security concerns “rightful and legitimate.”

At the same time, Stoltenberg held a meeting with Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Friday, and they have talked about “the need to address Turkey’s concerns and move forward” with Helsinki’s and Stockholm’s applications.