FM sees progress in Turkey´s ratification, talks to continue

Foreign Ministers of Finland, Sweden and Turkey on Tuesday met in Bucharest and discussed the progress of Turkey´s position regarding Finland, Sweden´s NATO membership ratifications.

Finnish Foreign Pekka Haavisto and his Swedish and Turkish counterparts Tobias Billstrom and Mevlut Cavusoglu held the meeting during the ongoing NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs summit and discussed the progress of trilateral memorandum, said the Foreign Ministry in twitter post.

“Discussions with colleagues Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Finland and Sweden's ratifications. Progress under the trilateral memorandum has been made. Substantial discussions continue with Türkiye,” the ministry wrote in the twitter post, quoting Haavisto as saying.

“Held Trilateral FMs Meeting of Turkey-Sweden-Finland. Reviewed steps taken in line with the Trilateral Memorandum & stressed our expectations,” Cavusoglu wrote in his twitter after the meeting.

Haavisto also held meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and discussed the progress.

“I thanked the SG for his support for Finland and Sweden NATO membership process. We discussed the steps ahead,” The Foreign Ministry wrote in another twitter post, quoting Haavisto as saying.

Haavisto is attending the meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers in Bucharest from November 29 to November 30.

This is the first time Finland attends the meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs as an invitee to NATO.

Earlier, the second meeting of the Permanent Joint Mechanism between Finland, Sweden and Turkey was held on November, 25 in Stockholm.

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.