Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Turkey was refusing to certify the requests of Sweden and Finland to join NATO “until the promises” of the two countries are fulfilled.
“As long as the promises made to our country are not fulfilled, we will maintain our initial position,” Erdogan, who since mid-May has been threatening to block the two northern countries’ accession to NATO, told the Turkish parliament. .
“We are closely monitoring whether the promises made by Sweden and Finland have been kept, and of course the final decision will rest with our great parliament,” added the head of state.
Erdogan, who has insisted on the importance of “fighting terrorism”, accuses the two countries of protecting Kurdish fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers terrorists.
So far, 28 NATO member states – out of a total of 30 – have ratified the accession of Sweden and Finland. Only Hungary and Turkey have not yet given their final approval.
In an important concession gesture for Turkey to get the green light from Ankara to join NATO, Sweden announced on Friday that it had re-authorized the export of military equipment to that country.
Lifting these restrictions was among the conditions set by Ankara.
At the NATO summit held in Madrid at the end of June, Sweden, Finland and Turkey signed the memorandum opening the accession of the two northern countries to NATO.
However, the Turkish president immediately threatened to veto if certain conditions were not met.
A Swedish delegation will visit Turkey on Wednesday and Thursday to continue negotiations.
A tripartite meeting was held in Finland at the end of August.
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