UPDATE 2 - Turkish, Finnish foreign ministers discuss NATO enlargement

UPDATES WITH TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER'S PHONE CALL WITH SWEDISH COUNTERPART

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA (AA) - Türkiye's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Friday met with his Finnish counterpart Pekka Haavisto in the capital Ankara and discussed NATO enlargement.

In a Twitter post, Cavusoglu announced his meeting with Pekka which came ahead of Finnish President Sauli Niinisto's visit to Ankara.

"Discussed NATO enlargement. Thanked for the earthquake support," he added.

Abandoning decades of military non-alignment, Finland and Sweden formally applied to join NATO last May.

However, Türkiye, a longstanding NATO member, asked the two Nordic states to take concrete action against terror groups like the PKK and Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), which carry out propaganda, funding, and recruitment activities in these countries.

In June, Finland and Sweden signed a memorandum with Türkiye to address Ankara’s security concerns, and senior diplomats and officials from the three countries have held various meetings since then to discuss the implementation of the trilateral agreement.

Separately, Cavusoglu spoke over the phone with his Turkmen counterpart Rashid Meredov and discussed bilateral relations.

According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Meredov congratulated Cavusoglu over Thursday's extraordinary summit of the heads of state of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) held in Ankara.

The OTS, formerly called the Turkic Council, is an international organization comprising prominent independent Turkic countries that work together to elevate relations and union among themselves.

Cavusoglu later spoke with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian over the phone and discussed regional matters, according to the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

The Turkish minister also held a phone conversation with Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov and discussed regional issues, the ministry said.

Cavusoglu also spoke over the phone with his Swedish counterpart Tobias Billstrom and discussed NATO enlargement, according to the ministry.