Turkey agrees to back Finland, Sweden NATO bid: Finnish president

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Finland's President Sauli Niinisto, Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg deliver a statement during a NATO summit in Madrid, Spain on June 28, 2022 [Violeta S

Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto said that Turkey has agreed to support Finland and Sweden’s joint membership of NATO, on the first day of the alliance’s summit in the Spanish capital, Madrid.

Niinisto said the breakthrough on Tuesday came after the three countries signed a joint memorandum “to extend their full support against threats to each other’s security”.

Ahead of the NATO summit, the leaders of Finland and Sweden had met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a bid to have him drop objections to them joining the military alliance.

The Nordic leaders voiced optimism earlier on Tuesday that the Turkish president might lift his veto on their bid to join the alliance.

After landing in Madrid, Erdogan held more than two hours of talks with Finnish President Niinisto, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

“We have made progress. That is definitely the case,” Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said.

“We are prepared for something positive to happen today, but also for it to take more time,” she added. “We must be patient and continue discussions even after the summit.”

Ankara had objected to Sweden and Finland’s bid to join NATO based on what it considers to be the Nordic pair’s lax approach toward groups Turkey deems national security threats. Turkey could have prevented Finland and Sweden from joining NATO since all members of the military bloc must agree to taking on new members.

Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull said NATO chief Stoltenberg said the alliance has “resolved its differences”.

“This allows NATO to put forward a united front in the face of Russian aggression, and that is absolutely core and central to the aims of this summit – not just a united front but an expanded front with two new members,” Hull said, speaking from Madrid.

Other NATO allies, including France and Spain, had indirectly urged Turkey to yield on its block of the two potential new Nordic members.

Speaking at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Germany, French President Emmanuel Macron had called for a message of “unity and of force” from NATO in Madrid.

Erdogan had accused Finland and more particularly Sweden of offering a safe haven to Kurdish militants who have been waging a decades-long armed uprising against the Turkish state.

The Turkish leader had also called on the two countries to lift arms embargoes imposed on Turkey in 2019 over Ankara’s military offensive in Syria.

On Monday, Erdogan said he wanted to see the results of preparatory talks held in Brussels before deciding whether Sweden and Finland had done enough to lift his objections to their membership of NATO.

“We will see what point they [Finland and Sweden] have reached,” he said on Monday before flying to Madrid for the summit.

“We do not want empty words. We want results.”

‘Interest of the alliance’
In addition to Finland and Sweden’s membership bids in the 30-member military alliance, the three-day NATO summit in Madrid will also discuss the Ukraine-Russia war and NATO’s new strategic concept.

Erdogan is expected to meet Biden on Wednesday on the sidelines of the gathering focused on responding to the Kremlin’s invasion of its pro-Western neighbour.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the US was not adopting a “brokering role” with Turkey and would leave the NATO secretary-general in charge of the negotiations.

“Rather, we’re going to do what many other allies have done, which is indicate publicly and privately that we believe it is in the interest of the alliance to get this done,” he added.

“And we also believe that Finland and Sweden have taken significant steps forward in terms of addressing Turkey’s concerns.”

Analysts believe the meeting between Erdogan and Biden could play a crucial role in breaking down Turkey’s resistance to the membership bids by Sweden and Finland.

The two leaders have had a chilly relationship since Biden’s election because of US concerns about human rights under Erdogan.

Biden and Erdogan last met briefly in October on the sidelines of a Group of Twenty (G20) summit in Rome.



PUKmedia/AL JAZEERA