Türkiye, Sweden, Finland discuss Nordic NATO bid

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) - The first meeting of a permanent joint mechanism between Türkiye, Finland, and Sweden was held in Finland on Friday.

On June 28, the trio signed a trilateral memorandum at the NATO summit in Madrid to address Türkiye’s legitimate security concerns, paving the way for Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership.

The Turkish delegation of the mechanism was chaired by Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin and Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal, with the participation of representatives from the ministries of foreign affairs, interior and justice, as well as intelligence services and security institutions.

The Swedish delegation was chaired by State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Security Oscar Stenstrom and Finland's delegation was headed by Permanent State Secretary for the Foreign Ministry Jukka Salovaara.

During the meeting, the working principles of the mechanism were determined, developments regarding the implementation of the commitments made in the trilateral memorandum were reviewed, and concrete steps to be taken in the coming period were emphasized.

Finland and Sweden reiterated that they will show full solidarity and cooperation with Türkiye in the fight against terror groups, especially the PKK, PYD/YPG, and FETO and that they will not support the groups threatening Türkiye’s national security.

They agreed to intensify cooperation at the technical level between the relevant institutions in order to achieve concrete progress on the issues.

Türkiye, a NATO member for more than 70 years, made it clear that it will oppose the Nordic countries' NATO membership if its security concerns have not been met.