Blinken calls for Scandinavian countries to join NATO soon in Turkey – #Blinken #calls #Scandinavian #countries #join #NATO #Turkey
ANKARA, 20 February (Reuters) – USA Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that although his Turkish counterpart emphasized the importance of taking more concrete steps, Washington, taking into account the steps already taken by Sweden and Finland NATOstrongly supports fast membership.
Scandinavian countries NATOMembership offers have been suspended because Turkey refused to ratify them and said that it harbors what it calls members of terrorist groups, especially in Stockholm. Ankara recently said it would approve only Finland.
“Finland and Sweden have already taken concrete steps to fulfill their obligations within the framework of the tripartite agreement memorandum they signed,” he said. Blinken, USAexpressed his strong support for their entry into the alliance “as soon as possible”.
he NATOof the issue of Nordic expansion Turkey emphasized once again that it is not a bilateral issue.
But Çavuşoğlu, along with Blinken, said that all parties in the alliance should convince Sweden in particular to take more steps to overcome Ankara’s concerns and win its support for this proposal.
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When asked whether Ankara will approve NATO membership at the meeting to be held in Lithuania in July, where the Western countries hope to complete the expansion, Çavuşoğlu said that Stockholm should do more.
“Sweden law made the change, but we see that all kinds of activities continue in Sweden, including terrorist financing, recruitment and propaganda.”
If they take steps to convince our parliament and people, there can be development in this direction,” he added.
Sweden and Finland applied to join the Transatlantic Defense Pact after Russia invaded Ukraine last year, but faced unexpected objections from Turkey.
Ankara, especially Helsinki and Stockholm Turkey and wants him to take a tougher stance against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which its Western allies consider a terrorist group, and another group it blames for a 2016 coup attempt.
In January Erdogan only stated that it was open to ratifying Helsinki’s application.
Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Huseyin Hayatsever and Ezgi Erkoy Writing by Daren Butler and Parisa Hafezi; Edited by Jonathan Spicer
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2023-02-20 13:44:45
Source – reuters
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