Finland, Sweden hold NATO discussion with Turkey in Stockholm

The second meeting of the Permanent Joint Mechanism between Finland, Sweden and Turkey was held on Friday in Stockholm and discussed the progress of Turkey´s position regarding Finland, Sweden´s NATO membership ratifications.

The meeting affirmed closer expert-level cooperation between ministries and other authorities and the progress made by Finland and Sweden in implementing the memorandum, said the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in a press release late Friday night.

The meeting also agreed that the cooperation will be continued.

Turkey is demanding concrete Finnish and Swedish actions to address Turkish security concerns over extraditing hostile groups members before it unblocks their accession into NATO.

Another country Hungary did not ratify the membership yet, although Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on November 2 assured President Sauli Niinistö that his country will ratify Finland´s NATO accession protocol.

Finland and Sweden submitted the NATO membership applications in May.

Their accession procedure officially started in early July after 30 NATO members, including Turkey signed accession protocols.

So far 28 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, France, Czech Republic, Greece, Spain Portugal and Slovakia ratified the membership protocols.

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