Erdogan discussed with NATO Secretary General the entry into the alliance of Sweden and Finland

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a telephone conversation with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, during which the parties discussed the entry of Finland and Sweden into the alliance, transmits Anadolu.

Erdogan said during the conversation that Helsinki and Stockholm have different attitudes towards this process, and Ankara is already ready to vote in parliament to ratify Finland’s application. The negotiation process with Sweden will depend on the “concrete steps” that the authorities of this country will take.

The conversation took place after became knownthat a vote in the Turkish parliament on the ratification of Finland’s application will take place before the general elections in the country on May 14, 2023. If the application is approved by the Turkish parliament, Helsinki can join the alliance by the summer of this year – already at the end of March, the parliament of another member of the alliance that did not approve the application – Hungary. Finland’s application has so far been approved by 28 out of 30 NATO countries.

Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership at the same time on May 18, 2022. At the moment, only Hungary and Turkey, which are members of the alliance, have not ratified the protocols on the accession of states to the bloc.

According to the agreements signed in June 2022, Helsinki and Stockholm promised Ankara to investigate and stop any funding and recruitment activities of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), recognized as terrorist in Turkey. In particular, the countries pledged to consider Turkey’s requests for the extradition of terrorist suspects.

On January 21, Danish politician Rasmus Paludan burned a Koran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, angering the Turkish authorities. Erdogan said that Sweden should no longer wait for support for its application to join NATO. After that, Finland admitted that they could join the bloc without Sweden, but later emphasized that Helsinki’s position on joining together with its neighbor had not changed.