Top Turkish, Finnish diplomats discuss trilateral NATO membership accord

By Burak Dag

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish and Finnish foreign ministers on Sunday discussed implementation of a trilateral memorandum signed along with Sweden to address Ankara's concerns on terrorism.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said Mevlut Cavusoglu and Pekka Haavisto spoke over phone, and also discussed the recent developments in Ukraine and Türkiye's mediation efforts for peace.

Sweden and Finland shunned neutrality and applied to join NATO in May, a decision spurred by Russia's war on Ukraine.

But Türkiye, a longstanding member of the alliance, voiced objections to the membership bids, criticizing the countries for tolerating and even supporting terror groups such as the PKK and its offshoots.

Ahead of a NATO summit in Madrid last month, Türkiye, Sweden and Finland signed the accord, which allows the two Nordic countries to become NATO members but conditions them to take steps over Türkiye's terrorism concerns and lift an arms embargo on Ankara.

Following the deal, NATO formally invited Sweden and Finland to join the 30-member military alliance.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged Stockholm and Helsinki to keep their promises in order to get their membership bids ratified.