Finland, Sweden, Turkey meet over NATO accession bids

Finnish, Swedish and Turkish representatives on Friday met at Königstedt Manor in Vantaa, Finland with the view to overcome Turkish barrier on way to Finland, Sweden´s NATO accession.

Finland hosted the first meeting of the Permanent Joint Mechanism with the participation of experts from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Justice and Defense, from the Presidential and Prime Ministerial Administrations, as well as Intelligence Services, said the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in a press release.

Earlier in June, Finland, Sweden and Turkey agreed on establishing a Permanent Joint Mechanism to follow up on the implementation of the Memorandum and to enhance cooperation on common security.

The participants discussed the concrete steps to implement the Trilateral Memorandum and agreed that the Mechanism will continue to meet at the expert level during the autumn, the press release added.

Turkish presidential policy advisor Ibrahim Kalin, who took part in the meeting on Ankara's behalf, said that Stockholm and Helsinki were open to Turkey's demands.

"Finland and Sweden have renewed their commitment to demonstrate full solidarity and cooperation with Turkey in the fight against all forms and manifestations of terror," Kalin's office said in a statement.

So far 23 countries out of total 30 ratified the NATO accession protocols for Finland and Sweden.

The countries are USA, Italy, Canada, Estonia, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, United Kingdom, Albania, Poland, Latvia, Slovenia, Croatia, The Netherlands, Luxemburg, Bulgaria, Germany, Romania, Lithuania, Montenegro, Belgium, North Macedonia and France.

Finland´s accession protocol needs to be ratified by the rest seven NATO member countries, although some questions from Turkey still remain in this regard.

The Foreign Ministers of Finland, Sweden and Turkey on June 28 signed a trilateral memorandum which confirms that Turkey will support the Finland´s and Sweden´s NATO membership applications.

Earlier on July 18, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated that he would freeze the bids from Finland and Sweden to join the NATO alliance if they do not keep the promises they made to secure Turkey's support last month

Turkey initially blocked the Finland, Sweden´s membership bids accusing the Nordic countries of harboring anti-Turkey terrorist groups Workers' Party (PKK) and the Gulen movement.

On June 30, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Sweden and Finland's accession to NATO could still be blocked if the countries did not fulfill their end of a bargain with Ankara to extradite wanted individuals deemed by Turkey to be "terrorists."

On July 1, Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said that no change to Finnish law was agreed upon in any form in the trilateral memorandum signed among Finland, Sweden and Turkey.

On July 5, NATO Ambassadors signed the Accession Protocols for Finland and Sweden at NATO Headquarters in Brussels.