STOCKHOLM —
Finland’s Prime Minister said Tuesday that Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO
applications could stall if an agreement with Turkey, which is currently
blocking their bids, is not reached before a summit this month.
اضافة اعلان
The two Nordic
countries reversed decades of military non-alignment by applying for
NATO memberships in May, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Any NATO
membership deal must however be unanimously approved by all 30 members of the
alliance, and Turkey has thrown a spanner in the works and blocked their bids.
“I think it’s
very important to go forward at this stage. If we don’t solve these issues
before Madrid, there is a risk that the situation will freeze,” Prime Minister
Sanna Marin said, referring to the upcoming NATO summit in Madrid, scheduled to
begin on June 28.
“We don’t know
for how long but it might freeze for a while,” Marin told reporters during a
visit to Sweden.
Ankara is
accusing the Nordic neighbors of providing a safe haven for the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a “terrorist” group by Turkey and its
Western allies.
Marin stressed
that they were taking Turkey’s concerns seriously and wanted to address them
“and if there are some misunderstandings, to correct those”.
At the same time
she also noted that Turkey had previously said the countries would be welcomed
into NATO, but that Ankara changed its tune once the membership applications
were made.
“Of course we are
taking all the issues very seriously and are having talks, but I also think
that it’s also Turkey’s responsibility to try to find solutions at this stage,”
Marin said at a joint press conference with her Nordic counterparts.
NATO Secretary
General
Jens Stoltenberg said Monday, during a visit to Sweden, that NATO was
working “hard and actively” to resolve Turkey’s concerns “as soon as possible”.
Stoltenberg has
previously said Sweden and Finland would be welcomed into NATO “with open
arms”, and expected the Turkey issue to be resolved before the upcoming NATO
summit.
But speaking in
Finland on Sunday he conceded that the dispute may drag on, saying “the summit
in Madrid was never a deadline”.
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