Turkey will no longer oppose Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership. Finnish President Sauli Niinistö announced this on Tuesday evening on the first day of the NATO summit in Madrid.
According to news agency, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg also has Reuters confirmed that the three countries have reached an agreement. “President Putin is getting more NATO on his borders,” the NATO secretary general said.
Turkey was previously skeptical about joining Finland and Sweden, because those countries would be too lenient towards the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Turkey and the European Union consider the PKK a terrorist organization, but Sweden is said to be hosting alleged PKK members.
In a joint statement, Turkey, Finland and Sweden pledged support over “threats to each other’s security”. According to Stoltenberg, that statement would also contain Turkey’s concerns, including about the export of firearms and the fight against terrorism. It is not yet clear whether concrete agreements have been made about the role of the Scandinavian countries in the Turkish fight against the PKK.
With Turkey’s decision to no longer oppose the membership of the Scandinavian countries, the road to NATO membership is clear. The next step, says Finnish President Niinistö, is a formal invitation from NATO.
In May, Finland and Sweden decided to apply for membership of the military alliance. The reason for this was the Russian invasion of Ukraine.