Sweden, Finland’s NATO bid talks with Turkey in March

Istanbul:

Turkey said on Monday that NATO accession talks with Sweden and Finland would be held next month after being postponed in January due to protests held in Stockholm.

“The meeting will take place on March 9,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a news conference in Ankara with his Hungarian counterpart.

Bids to join NATO must be approved by all members of the alliance, of which Turkey is a member.

But Ankara was angered by protests in January that included the burning of a Quran outside its embassy in Stockholm.

In turn, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Sweden that he would not support its attempt to join the Western US-led defense alliance.

Erdogan has dug his heels into a close presidential election in which he is trying to activate his nationalist electoral base.

The last two rounds of trilateral NATO talks attended by foreign ministry officials focused on a specific list of Turkish demands, including the expulsion of dozens of mostly Kurdish suspects.

Cavusoglu said the third planned meeting would be held in Brussels.

“It is not possible for us to agree (to the NATO bid) before Sweden fulfills its commitments” under the three-party protocol signed in Madrid in June, he said.

Cavusoglu also made it clear that Turkey warmly monitors Finland’s bid.

“We can separate the membership process of Sweden and Finland,” he said.

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