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Updated August 12th, 2022 at 13:39 IST

Turkey to meet Sweden & Finland on implementation of actions promised for NATO bid

The Turkish foreign minister announced Sweden, Finland and Turkey will meet on August 26 for the first meeting of the trilateral memorandum's joint mechanism.

Reported by: Aparna Shandilya
Turkey
Image: AP | Image:self
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The Turkish foreign minister announced on August 11 that Sweden, Finland, and Turkey will meet on August 26 for the first meeting of the trilateral memorandum's joint mechanism, after the Nordic nations agreed to cooperate with Ankara in its fight against terrorism.

Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters on the final day of the 13th Ambassadors Conference in Turkey's capital Ankara that Sweden and Finland have yet to deliver on their commitments arising from the trilateral memorandum signed at the NATO summit in Madrid in June, and that they haven't taken any solid steps on Turkey's requests for terrorist extradition.

The top diplomat reiterated Turkey's desire to see concrete actions from the two countries and characterised the comments made by Swedish and Finnish authorities regarding their promises as "well intentioned." Sweden and Finland, long known for their military neutrality policies, applied to join NATO after Russia launched its war in Ukraine in February. Turkey was the only one of the alliance's 30 members to vote against their bids.

During a summit in Madrid in June, the three countries' foreign ministers signed a memorandum confirming Turkey's support for Sweden and Finland's NATO bids. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan had earlier said that Ankara would not approve Nordic countries' applications to join the alliance, citing their support for Kurdish organisations that Turkey views as security threats, among other concerns. 

Ankara criticises Sweden and Finland for their lax approach toward terror groups

Ankara criticises Sweden and Finland for their lax approach toward groups that it considers to be national security threats, such as the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its Syrian extension, as well as followers of exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey blames for a failed coup against Erdogan in 2016. Turkey has also demanded that the country hand over more than 70 people labelled as terrorists by its president.

Later on August 11, Sweden announced that it would extradite to Turkey a man wanted for fraud, according to the T24 news site, marking the first case since Ankara's demand in exchange for allowing Stockholm to formally apply for NATO membership. According to Swedish broadcaster SVT, the 39-year-old was sentenced to 14 years in prison in Turkey on several counts of bank card fraud and has been detained in Sweden since last year.

Image: AP

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Published August 12th, 2022 at 13:39 IST

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