Diplomats from Finland and Turkey met in Berlin on Saturday to discuss Finland’s accession to NATO. Both Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu and his Finnish counterpart Pekka Haavisto have confirmed this, according to international news agencies. Turkey has so far given the impression that it will not simply approve Finland’s NATO membership.
Turkey reiterated on Saturday in Berlin, where NATO’s 30 foreign ministers are meeting this weekend with their counterparts from Finland and Sweden, why it is not so enthusiastic about Finland’s entry into the military alliance. Cavusoglu pointed to the “unacceptable and shameful” support that Finland and fellow aspiring member Sweden are giving to the Kurdish terrorist group PKK. In Sweden, some MPs sympathize with the organization. “The vast majority of the Turkish population” is against the membership of Finland and Sweden because of the PKK issue, the Turkish minister said. “That is an issue that we will have to discuss with our NATO allies as well as with these two countries.”
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Finnish minister Haavisto said he had phoned his “good colleague” Cavusoglu on Friday and said he is “certain” that Finland and Turkey will work it out together. Finland announced earlier this week that it wanted to join NATO “as soon as possible”.
Other NATO countries expressed their support in Berlin for the Finnish joining the alliance. “We don’t know exactly what Turkey means,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Scharning Huitfeldt said, for example, according to Reuters news agency, “but from our perspective, we are 100 percent behind Finland and Sweden.” The Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Wopke Hoekstra (CDA) thinks that Finland and Sweden will join NATO. “This time clearly calls for unity and I am sure we can demonstrate it,” he said, according to ANP news agency. According to him, Sweden and Finland are “ready in all respects to join the alliance”.
The NATO meeting in the German capital continues on Sunday. Afterwards, around half past two in the afternoon, NATO foreman Jens Stoltenberg addresses the press. In addition, the Swedish ruling party of Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson will issue an official position on NATO membership on Sunday.
This article is also part of our live blog: Finland and Turkey discuss NATO membership issue