Turkey awaits steps from Finland and Sweden on agreement to join NATO

Ankara, Jul 8 (Prensa Latina) Turkey's Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said that his country expects concrete steps from Finland and Sweden regarding the agreement signed on the framework of the NATO summit in Madrid.

July 8, 2022
09:04

“A tripartite memorandum was signed in Madrid, but we expect concrete actions from them,” Cavusoglu said, as quoted by the press.

Despite the signed trilateral memorandum, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated on July 1st that Ankara would not support the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO if they did not fulfill their obligations.

Finland and Sweden submitted applications to join the bloc on May 18th.

The president of Turkey, Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, the prime minister of Sweden, Magdalena Andersson, and the general secretary of the alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, met in Madrid on June 28th with these objectives in mind.

Ankara demands that Helsinki and Stockholm change their political stance towards Turkey and remove restrictions on arms sales, imposed since 2019, in exchange for joining the alliance.

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