Original title: Turkey’s foreign minister said it may treat Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO differently
Xinhua News Agency, Ankara, January 30 (Reporter Wang Tengfei) Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu said on the 30th that Turkey may treat Finland and Sweden’s applications to join NATO differently.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised speech on the 29th that Turkey may treat Finland and Sweden differently on the issue of joining NATO. Cavusoglu told reporters on the 30th that he had communicated with the Finnish side on this issue. Cavusoglu said that Finland has made some progress in joining NATO, but there have been some provocative incidents in Sweden.
Recently, there have been demonstrations against Turkey in Sweden. Turkey sent a note to the Swedish ambassador to Turkey, protesting the demonstrations and canceling a planned visit by the Swedish defense minister to Turkey. In addition, Turkey believes that Sweden has not made substantial progress in the extradition of terrorist-related criminals and the freezing of terrorist assets.
Sweden and Finland will apply to join NATO in May 2022. In June of the same year, Turkey, Sweden, and Finland signed a memorandum, confirming that Turkey agreed to support Sweden and Finland in joining NATO. Sweden and Finland would not support the PKK, the Syrian Kurdish armed “People’s Protection Forces” and the “Gulen Movement” and agreed to dissolve the NATO alliance. Restrictions on the export of defense equipment to Turkey.
According to the regulations, NATO must have the “unanimous consent” of the 30 member states before it can admit new members. Currently, Turkey and Hungary have not officially ratified Sweden and Finland to join NATO.