Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Monday that the Turkish government is not against NATO expansion but insisted on the need for its demands to be met in order to finally proceed with the accession of countries such as Sweden and Finland.
Cavusoglu has pointed out during a press conference that Turkey «is not against the enlargement» of the Alliance, «nor does it have problems with Sweden and Finland.» «There are «no fundamental objections against the entry of these two countries», he has qualified, although he has insisted that they must meet the requirements despite the fact that «he understands their security concerns».
In this sense, he clarified that Turkey has put on the table a series of «concerns» that «must be taken into account» and confirmed that the Turkish authorities are considering the possibility of dealing with the requests independently, according to statements reported by the Haberturk television channel.
«If this step is taken, we hope to be able to consider them independently. I think it would be fair to divide these countries into the most and least problematic, but our aim is not really to separate them. Our position is based on objective analyses of how these requirements are met,» he said.
On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan admitted that there could be a different response to the submission of applications by these two countries and indicated that, if necessary, Turkey «could send a different message to Finland.» He thus placed Finland ahead of Sweden in the race for NATO membership, while warning Helsinki «not to make mistakes» in this respect.
Tension has increased over the past week after a series of protests in Sweden over Turkey’s refusal to facilitate Stockholm’s accession to NATO on the grounds that the country is not meeting the requirements agreed by the parties during the June 2022 NATO summit in Madrid.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
