Finland and Sweden joined the United States on Thursday in calling on Turkey to give the green light to NATO membership, saying they had met Ankara's security demands.
The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken and his Swedish and Finnish counterparts refrained, during a joint press conference in Washington after trilateral talks, from criticizing Turkey, which is still blocking the accession of the two Nordic countries to the Atlantic Alliance.
“
I am convinced that NATO will soon formally welcome Finland and Sweden into its ranks
,” declared the American Secretary of State.
“
Both countries have taken meaningful concrete steps to fulfill their commitments, including those related to the security interests of our ally Turkey
,” he added.
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Turkey has been blocking the enlargement of the Atlantic Alliance since May by demanding the extradition of several Kurdish nationals from Turkey who have gone into exile or taken refuge in Sweden and, to a lesser extent, in Finland.
Sweden last week expelled one of them, Mahmut Tat, sentenced in Turkey to six years and ten months in prison for belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an organization considered terrorist by Ankara and the European Union.
Turkey's pressure continues ahead of 2023 elections
Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said the commitments made by the two countries to Turkey had been "
completely fulfilled
".
He hoped that Sweden and Finland could join NATO in February, the date advanced by the other country still blocking the process, Hungary, so that the Hungarian parliament ratifies this membership.
"
Of course, what we still lack is a clear date and a clear program from the Turkish parliament to settle this issue
," Haavisto said.
“
We know that Turkey is going to have elections.
Of course, we hope that this decision by Turkey will come as soon as possible
.”
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Presidential and legislative elections are scheduled for next June in Turkey.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in power since 2003, hopes to remain at the helm of the country and experts expect him to be inflexible until then to satisfy his conservative electorate.
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden submitted a joint bid to join the Atlantic Alliance in May, abandoning decades of military non-alignment.
This must be accepted unanimously by the 30 member states of NATO.