Biden will call on Congress to approve “as soon as possible” the nominations of Finland and Sweden (Getty)
The US President confirmed Of the bygonestoday, Thursday, that Sweden AndFinland You meet ‘all criteria’ to join NATO (NATO), while the latter confirmed that it was working to allay “concerns”. Turkey About the accession of the two Scandinavian countries.
Biden announced that he would call on Congress to approve “as soon as possible” the nominations of Finland and Sweden to join NATO.
Biden said, along with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersen and Finnish President Sauli Niinistowho are visiting the White House, the day after submitting the official candidacy for the accession of their countries, “Today I am proud to assure them of the full and complete support of the United States of America.”
VIDEO: US President Joe Biden says Sweden and Finland “meet every NATO requirement, and then some” during an event at the White House alongside Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson pic.twitter.com/0xg8nH2OAf
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 19, 2022
For his part, the Finnish president affirmed that he is “ready to discuss” with Turkey all the issues that raise its “concern”, in order to contain Ankara’s opposition to Finland and Sweden joining the EU. NATO.
“As allies within NATO, we will defend Turkey’s security,” Niinisto said during his visit to Washington, adding, “We condemn terrorism in all its forms,” noting that the Turkish authorities take the two countries as sponsors of “terrorists” from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
In turn, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersen announced that a “dialogue” is underway with Turkey with the aim of “solving” these issues.
NATO works to allay Turkey’s “concerns”
In the same context, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced today, Thursday, that the military alliance is working to dispel the “concerns” expressed by Turkey about the requests of Sweden and Finland to join it.
“We are certainly dealing with the concerns expressed by Turkey” in order to reach an “agreement on the way forward,” Stoltenberg said during a conference in Copenhagen.
The statements of the Atlantic, Finland and Sweden regarding Turkey’s reassurance come after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated, on Wednesday, his country’s position rejecting Finland and Sweden’s accession to the alliance, saying that his country supports NATO “strongly”, but that does not mean agreeing to all its proposals.
Erdogan said, in a speech during the meeting of the parliamentary bloc of his ruling “Justice and Development” party in parliament in the capital Ankara: “We are actually at the forefront of countries that strongly support NATO’s activities, but this does not mean that we will say (yes) to each proposal without question and inquiry.”
In his statements, which were reported by “Anatolia” and Turkish media, the Turkish president denounced the behavior of Sweden and Finland in their request from Turkey to approve their accession to NATO, while refusing to hand over “terrorists” to it.
Turkey finds an opportunity to neutralize Sweden and Finland in its struggle with the banned organizations, namely the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units and the Service Group, all of which Turkey classifies as “terrorist organizations.”
This comes in light of a Turkish media talk that Sweden and Finland have rejected Turkey’s requests for years to hand it over 33 members of the “service” and the “Kurdistan Workers.” after the issuance of judicial decisions against them.
(Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, Archyde.com, AFP)