ISTANBUL, Turkey — Turkey said on Wednesday Sweden’s new government was more determined
to address
Ankara’s security concerns in return for NATO membership but called
for “concrete steps”.
اضافة اعلان
Foreign Minister
Mevlut Cavusoglu met with his Swedish and Finnish counterparts on the sidelines
of a
NATO gathering in Bucharest on Tuesday.
Ankara has
accused the two Nordic nations — especially Stockholm — of providing a safe
haven for outlawed Kurdish groups it deems “terrorists” and held back on ratifying
their NATO bids despite an agreement in Madrid in June.
“The statements
(coming out of Sweden) are good, the determination is good but we need to see
concrete steps,” Cavusoglu told reporters in Bucharest.
“We told them we
haven’t seen concrete steps on these issues” including the extradition of
criminals and freezing of terror assets, he said.
Sweden’s Foreign
Minister Tobias Billstrom spoke optimistically about Tuesday’s meeting.
“And I have to
say that I felt after this meeting that yes, there is progress in line,” he
said.
“We are moving
forward with the implementation of a trilateral memorandum which was signed in
Madrid.”
US Secretary of
State
Antony Blinken also sounded upbeat, saying he was confident that Sweden
and Finland would “soon” join NATO.
“Turkey, Sweden,
and Finland are engaging directly as well as with NATO to make sure that
Turkey’s concerns are fully addressed, including concerns about its security,”
he said.
“That process has
been, moving forward. And I’m very confident and again, based on what I’ve
heard these last couple of days, that Finland Sweden will soon be formally new
members of the alliance.”
Finland and
Sweden dropped decades of military non-alignment and scrambled to become NATO
members in May, after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The decision requires a
consensus within the US-led defense alliance, but only Turkey and Hungary are
yet to give consent to their membership.
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