Turkey, Sweden and Finland pointed out on Thursday “progress” in the final process of accession of the two Nordic countries to NATO and that Ankara continues to blockade, the allied military organization said in a statement after a meeting in Brussels.
“The participants welcomed the progress achieved,” said the Atlantic Alliance at the end of the meeting between the representatives of the three countries and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
The meeting was included in the permanent joint mechanism established by the trilateral memorandum signed on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Madrid in June 2022.
This was the third meeting of this platform and it was decided to organize another meeting before the allied summit in Vilnius in July, to “continue cooperation in this format”.
“Finland and Sweden have taken unprecedented steps to address Turkey’s legitimate security concerns. The time has come for all allies to complete the ratification process and welcome Finland and Sweden as full members of the Alliance before of the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius,” the Lithuanian capital, the military organization said in a statement.
“The parties agreed that the decision to invite Finland and Sweden to become NATO members was historic. They also agreed that the early ratification of Finland and Sweden will be in everyone’s interest, and that their membership will strengthen the Alliance,” the statement concluded. .
Only Turkey and Hungary, among 30 allies, have not yet ratified the entry of Finland and Sweden, which since June have guaranteed the status of “guests” of the Alliance that allows them to participate in its initiatives, despite not being legally protected by the principle . defense collective action in case of attack against one or more members of the military conclave.
The representatives of Turkey, Finland and Sweden discussed today the concrete steps taken for the implementation of the trilateral memorandum.
The text establishes that there should be no restrictions on the export of arms between the three signatories, in addition to a significant reinforcement of anti-terrorist cooperation.
In this regard, Sweden is preparing to toughen anti-terrorism legislation, including against the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Turkey’s Kurdish guerrillas.
The Government has presented today before the Parliament of Stockholm a motion that reinforces the anti-terrorist laws, with the aim of criminalizing collaboration with terrorist organizations, a project that has been negotiated for six years and that the current government of the Swedish right-wing coalition has Intend to approve in June.
The modification of the legislation intends to penalize actions such as withholding material from terrorist groups, organizing meetings or helping in the transportation of its members.
Source: TSF
