Turkey wants written assurances from Finland, Sweden

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday held a phone conversation over the membership bid of Sweden and Finland, reported Xinhua.

Erdogan reiterated his stance that steps should be taken to address Turkey's "legitimate concerns" about Sweden and Finland's NATO membership requests, the Turkish presidency said in a statement.

Erdogan told Stoltenberg that Turkey wants written assurances from the two Nordic countries in order to make progress in their NATO membership.

He emphasized that they "cannot achieve progress in the process without concrete steps that meet Turkey's rightful expectations, and without giving written commitments to a paradigm shift in the fight against terrorism and defense industry cooperation," the statement said.

Sweden and Finland submitted applications to join NATO in mid-May.

Although several NATO countries have already approved the two countries' bid to join the military alliance, the process has proven not to be as straightforward, as Turkey soon raised objections, citing Swedish and Finnish ties with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and other groups Turkey labels as terrorists.

Ankara has also voiced dissatisfaction with the Swedish arms embargo on Turkey.

Earlier on 12 June, NATO Chief during his visit to Finland underscored the need for addressing concerns raised by Turkey regarding terrorist group PKK.

Niinistö said that it is difficult to understand the reason behind pointing out Finland, although there is no major differences in the way Finland deals with Turkey´s issue regarding terrorist group compared to other existing NATO countries.

He, however, said that it is important to tell Turkey as much as possible about what Finland has already done in regard to its concerns.

“I do not see any major differences in the way Finland deals with Turkey´s terrorist issue, if you compare to other existing NATO countries,” said the president, adding,” So that makes us too difficult to understand that we are pointed out.”

Niinistö also said that he was surprised by Turkey's opposition to the bid, but it was important to listen to Ankara's views.