Turkey, Sweden, and Finland hold NATO accession talks

Europe, News March 10, 2023 , by IRIA No Comments

Senior officials of Turkiye, Sweden, and Finland met at NATO headquarters in Brussels on March 9, 2023, to discuss Nordic nations’ NATO accession. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg hosted the third meeting of the Permanent Joint Mechanism between the three countries.

NATO Secretary General, who opened the meeting, said: “Finland and Sweden have taken unprecedented steps to address legitimate Turkish security concerns. It is now time for all Allies to conclude the ratification process and welcome Finland and Sweden as full members of the Alliance ahead of the upcoming NATO Summit in Vilnius”.

Ankara acknowledged that Finland and Sweden have taken “concrete steps” to meet its concerns over their bids to join NATO, however, Turkiye showed no signs of lifting its blockade on their NATO accession.

During the meeting, the representatives of Turkiye, Finland, and Sweden discussed the concrete steps that have been taken to implement the Trilateral Memorandum.

“As agreed in the Memorandum, there are no arms export restrictions between them; they have significantly enhanced counter-terrorism cooperation; and Sweden is now in the process of tightening anti-terrorism legislation, including against the PKK. All participants welcomed the progress that has been made”, the NATO statement read.

According to the NATO statement, the three sides agreed that rapid ratification for both Finland and Sweden would be in everyone’s interest and that their membership will strengthen the Alliance. Sweden, Finland, and Turkiye officials also agreed on the “long-term value of the Permanent Joint Mechanism in fighting terrorism and agreed to continue cooperation in this format and meet again before the Vilnius Summit”, the statement added.

*^{NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg attends a ceremony to mark Sweden’s and Finland’s application for membership in Brussels, Belgium, on May 18, 2022. (Image Credit: Johanna Geron/Reuters)}*

Sweden’s chief negotiator in the accession process, Oscar Stenstrom said during a press briefing after the talks, “We see that Turkey recognized that both Sweden and Finland have taken concrete steps in this agreement, which is a good sign.”

Turkish President Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said that Sweden and Finland’s measures to address Turkiye’s security concerns were “positive”, however, they were not enough for Ankara’s ratification of their NATO accession bid.

Kalin said, “We have once again highlighted Turkey’s security concerns and expectations. The steps to be taken by the countries will determine the course and speed of this issue.”

Earlier in December 2022, Turkiye has shown its reservations about Sweden’s progress in fulfilling the requirements that had been agreed upon by both sides before Ankara agreed to Stockholm’s accession into the NATO alliance. However, in January 2023, Turkey suspended the talks as part of the Permanent Joint Mechanism that was established by the Trilateral Memorandum signed in Madrid on the margins of the 2022 NATO Summit.

^{First row: Foreign Minister of Türkiye Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Foreign Minister of Finland Pekka Haavisto, and Foreign Minister of Sweden Ann Linde. Second row: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Finland Sauli Niinistö, and Prime Minister of Sweden Magdalena Andersson. (Image Credit: NATO)}

Sweden’s bid to join NATO once again came in jeopardy after anti-Turkey protests in Stockholm on January 21, 2023. The Turkish government expressed outrage over Sweden’s far-right government and politicians who carried out anti-Turkey and Islamophobic protests and burned a copy of the Quran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. Turkiye also canceled the Swedish defense minister’s planned visit to Ankara “due to lack of measures to restrict protests”.

Turkiye has repeatedly claimed that Sweden in particular has failed to implement its part of the trilateral agreement. Experts speculate that Finland might end up joining the NATO Alliance before its neighbor Sweden.