NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called in Ankara on Thursday for Finland and Sweden to join the military bloc, while Turkey has been blocking this step since last May.
“I still consider that now is the time to welcome Finland and Sweden together as members of NATO,” Stoltenberg said during a press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
Stoltenberg, who is visiting Turkey to express NATO’s support for this country after the devastating earthquake that killed more than 36,000 people in the country on February 6, raised for the first time publicly on Tuesday the possibility of Finland entering the alliance before Sweden.
But he stressed that he seeks to obtain “as soon as possible” the ratification of Turkey and Hungary on the accession of the two countries.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted in early February that the Turkish parliament might ratify Finland’s accession without Sweden, even though the two countries submitted their request together, as Ankara continues to block Stockholm’s request.
Cavusoglu said Thursday: It is unrealistic to say that Sweden has fully respected its duties under the protocol of the agreement signed in June between Turkey, Sweden and Finland.
Cavusoglu reiterated that Turkey is ready to “evaluate the process of Finland’s accession to NATO separately from Sweden.”
Turkey condemns Sweden, in particular, for harboring activists and supporters of the Kurds, whom it describes as “terrorists”, especially supporters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
The leaders of the thirty member states of the alliance decided to invite Sweden and Finland to join its ranks during a summit held in Madrid in July 2022.
Thirty countries have signed accession protocols and only 28 have ratified them, only Turkey and Hungary have yet to ratify.
A decision taken by the Swedish authorities in January to allow a demonstration in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, during which a Koran was burned, angered Ankara, which stopped negotiations and postponed a tripartite meeting that was scheduled for February.