European media gives extensive coverage to memorandum on Nordic countries' NATO bids

BRUSSELS/ANKARA (AA) – European media gave extensive coverage to the memorandum signed between Türkiye, Finland and Sweden on Tuesday on the Nordic countries’ bids for NATO membership following four-way talks in Madrid.

Media outlets evaluated the development as “the success of Türkiye,” saying the country “got what it wanted.”

British daily The Guardian said: “A last-minute agreement has been reached between Türkiye, Finland and Sweden to allow the two Nordic countries to become NATO members on the eve of the military alliance’s summit in Madrid.”

The newspaper quoted Sweden’s Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson as saying that she had shown the Turkish leader changes in Sweden’s terrorism legislation set to come into force next month.

“The text of the memorandum signed by all three leaders says that Finland and Sweden will ‘extend their full support’ to Türkiye in matters of national security,” The Guardian reported.

“The Nordic countries said they confirmed that the PKK was a proscribed organisation and, in a key concession, would ‘not provide support’ to the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and People’s Protection Units (YPG) groups that have been active in the fight against Islamic State in Syria,” it said.

- ‘Victory’

Under the headline “Türkiye lifts its block on letting Sweden and Finland join NATO,” the British weekly newspaper The Economist said: “Recep Tayyip Erdogan takes home a victory.”

Swedish public broadcaster SVT announced the development with the headline “Support by Türkiye for Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership.”

“Türkiye is abandoning its veto against Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership. This means that Sweden can now receive NATO candidate status,” SVT reported.

Meanwhile, the Spanish press commented that a big difficulty that threatened to overshadow the Madrid Summit had been resolved through the agreement.

Daily Spanish newspaper El Pais announced the development under the headline “Türkiye lifted its veto against the candidacy of Finland and Sweden in Madrid.”

“After weeks of negotiations, Türkiye was convinced at the talks held in Madrid under the mediation of the NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg,” El Pais reported.

“The signed agreement completely satisfied the Turkish side,” Greek daily Kathimerini reported.

French newspaper Le Figaro went with the headline “Türkiye opens NATO’s door to Finland and Sweden.”

In its news titled “Erdogan got what he wanted,” the German Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper said Türkiye accepted the entry of Sweden and Finland in return for some concessions demanded by President Erdogan.

Türkiye, Finland and Sweden signed a memorandum on Tuesday on the Nordic countries’ bids for NATO membership following four-way talks in Madrid.

President Erdogan, NATO chief Stoltenberg, Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto and Sweden’s Prime Minister Andersson met to discuss the issue and Ankara’s related concerns.

The memorandum was signed by foreign ministers of the three countries – Türkiye's Mevlut Cavusoglu, Pekka Haavisto of Finland and Ann Linde of Sweden – in the presence of all three national leaders and Stoltenberg.

* Writing by Zehra Nur Duz in Ankara