UPDATE - Türkiye, Sweden, Finland to meet in Ankara for NATO talks

ADDS REMARKS FROM US SECRETARY OF STATE IN GRAFS 8-10

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) – The fourth meeting on a permanent joint mechanism between Türkiye, Finland and Sweden will be held in the Turkish capital Ankara on Wednesday, Türkiye's Communications Directorate said on Monday.

Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership soon after Russia launched war in Ukraine in February 2022.

Although Türkiye approved Finland's membership to NATO, it is waiting for Sweden to abide by a trilateral memorandum signed last June in Madrid to address Ankara's security concerns.

The Wednesday's meeting at the presidential complex will be chaired by Akif Cagatay Kilic, chief adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to the directorate.

The meeting will be attended by Stian Jenssen, director of the Private Office of the NATO secretary general; Jan Knutsson, state secretary of the Swedish Foreign Ministry, and Jukka Salovaara, permanent state secretary for the Finnish Foreign Ministry.

Sweden passed an anti-terror law in November, hoping that Ankara would approve Stockholm's bid to join NATO. The new law, effective as of June 1, allows authorities to prosecute individuals who support terrorist groups.

Several foreign ministers hope that Türkiye would approve Sweden's bid ahead of a NATO summit which will be held in Lithuania's capital Vilnius on July 11-12.

- 'Appropriate' for Türkiye to raise security concerns over Sweden's accession to NATO, says Blinken

Addressing reporters in Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it is "appropriate" for all NATO members, including Türkiye, to raise security concerns they have over NATO's enlargement as Sweden looks to join the transatlantic alliance.

“It's a process and it's appropriate that during that process, every member of the alliance be able to raise any concerns or issues that it might have,” he said during a joint press conference with his Italian counterpart.

Blinken acknowledged the expediency with which Sweden and Finland’s membership bids have been addressed, saying, “if you look at this historically, the process for both Finland and Sweden has been very, very rapid, and appropriately so given the fact that both countries have been longtime partners of NATO, among the strongest democracies in the world, members of the European Union.”

"And of course, the challenge posed to European security by Russia's aggression in Ukraine makes the matter even more urgent," he added.

*Michael Hernandez contributed to this report from Washington.