Turkey has given conditional approval to Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership bids and could pause the process if the two countries fail to take the necessary steps against terrorist groups, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Monday.
“We see that Sweden has especially not been living up to its promises,” the president told a news conference at the Presidential Complex in the capital Ankara.
Erdoğan noted that Turkey has openly and frequently reiterated its concerns regarding NATO’s expansion and that Ankara has a determined attitude regarding the matter.
“As Turkey, our stance is clear. The rest is up to them,” he said.
Turkey, Sweden and Finland signed a trilateral memorandum in late June on the Nordic countries’ NATO membership process after an important meeting in Madrid in which Ankara got the concrete steps it was awaiting especially in the field of terrorism.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted Sweden and Finland to abandon their long-held nonaligned status and apply to join NATO. However, Turkey had opposed the move on the grounds that these two countries were supporting terrorist organizations.
