Yesterday, during a meeting with US Secretary of State Blinken, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he would convene a meeting in Brussels in the coming days with senior officials from Sweden, Finland and Turkey to discuss discuss the entry of Sweden and Finland into this defense alliance.
“I believe we will find a way forward. I believe that, since all our allies agree that NATO expansion is a great success, helping to spread democracy and freedom across Europe for decades, we need to sit down and discuss. and together find a way to move forward together the way we always do when at NATO we have different points of view.”
The statements of the NATO Secretary-General come as Turkey continues to prevent Finland and Sweden from joining the military organization. Addressing parliament, Erdogan said that Turkey would not change its position until it saw concrete and binding steps from Sweden and Finland to alleviate Ankara’s concerns. The Turkish president emphasized that Ankara’s objection to NATO’s admission of Finland and Sweden is not an opportunistic move, but purely for national security reasons.
“How can Turkey accept Sweden and Finland’s applications to join NATO in the context that these countries allow terrorist affiliates to move freely, organize protests there. Because Why are we against the membership of those countries because so far we have not received any specific proposals that can resolve our doubts.”
Before the Turkey’s harsh response Yesterday, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said that the country will continue to dialogue with Turkey on the issue. Andersson expressed hope for constructive meetings with Turkey in the near future: “We have had discussions, dialogues with Turkey and this dialogue will continue to happen. In the near future, I look forward to having more constructive meetings with Turkey in the hope of resolving any problems or misunderstandings that may arise.”
Finland and Sweden on May 15 applied to join NATO. Applications for membership by the two countries have been welcomed by the United States and European NATO allies, but Turkey has threatened to reject the applications unless security concerns are removed. Currently, public opinion is questioning what NATO must do to make Mr. Erdogan change his mind and support Sweden and Finland to join NATO.
Some analysts say that President Erdogan wants to take advantage of this rare opportunity to demand “Finland and Sweden stop supporting terrorist organizations” and extradite 33 individuals whom Ankara considers terrorists. In addition, Turkey wants the US to lift the arms embargo when it buys the S-400 missile defense system from Russia, prompting the US to exclude Turkey from the program to produce stealth fighters F- 35./.
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