Nato dispute with Turkey: Stoltenberg understands Erdogan - and dampens Sweden-Finland hope
Created: 06/12/2022, 21:53
By: Andreas Schmid
Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at a meeting in 2019. © picture alliance/dpa/NATO
The dispute over NATO's northern expansion continues.
Turkey is blocking Sweden's and Finland's accession plans.
A quick agreement does not seem to be in sight.
News ticker.
Sweden and Finland want to join NATO in the Ukraine conflict
.
Turkey blocked
: veto by Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues.
Stoltenberg brakes
: NATO Secretary General dampens hopes of quick agreement.
This
news ticker on the planned northern expansion of NATO to include Sweden and Finland
is constantly being updated.
Helsinki - The NATO summit will take place in Madrid from June 29th to 30th.
The date of the military alliance was also overshadowed two weeks earlier by the dispute over the accession of Sweden and Finland and Turkey's blockade.
According to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, a quick agreement is not in sight.
"I want this problem to be solved as soon as possible," Stoltenberg said on Sunday in Finland after a meeting with President Sauli Niinistö.
However, this will probably not happen before the NATO summit.
NATO expansion to include Sweden and Finland: Stoltenberg slows down
In doing so, the Secretary General, himself a Norwegian, is dampening hopes that Finland and Sweden will join soon.
After the accession plans of the two northern European countries became known, Stoltenberg said that NATO welcomed them "with open arms".
After the start of the Ukraine war, the Scandinavians announced their intention to join NATO.
Before that, they had understood each other as neutral for decades.
Accession actually only seemed a formality - but then Turkey intervened around President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
NATO: These countries are members
since 1949 | UK, USA, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Italy, Norway, Portugal |
since 1952 | Greece, Turkey |
since 1955 | Germany |
since 1982 | Spain |
since 1999 | Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic |
since 2004 | Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania |
since 2009 | Albania, Croatia |
since 2017 | Montenegro |
since 2020 | North Macedonia |
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NATO dispute over Turkey: Stoltenberg understands Turkey's concerns
Turkey is the only NATO member blocking the accession process.
Ankara accuses Finland and Sweden of supporting "terrorism".
They would provide shelter to the banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) and its allies YPG from northern Syria.
According to Stoltenberg, he understands these concerns.
"So when an important key ally like Turkey raises concerns about terrorism, then of course we have to sit down and take it seriously.
And that's exactly what we're doing.” Finland and Sweden are ready for that.
However, this has delayed the NATO accession of the two Northern Lights.
(as)
