This Sunday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed confidence that Finland and Sweden would join the organization despite Turkey’s “legitimate concerns”, calling the upcoming Madrid summit “decisive”.
“The Madrid summit has never been seen as the last chance to complete the ratification of the accession of Finland and Sweden,” Stoltenberg said at a joint press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö during a visit to the country.
Turkey’s concerns about joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) “need to be taken seriously” and the way to overcome them is to “sit and talk,” the official said, when asked about a possible blockade by Ankara, which accuses Nordic countries harboring members Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The Madrid summit, scheduled for June 29 and 30, should help “make progress” on these countries’ accession, but it is not a “deadline,” the official said, asking about options for opting for a fast-track process to help secure aspiring nations and strengthen the Alliance.
“I firmly believe that its membership will be in the security interests of NATO as a whole,” Stoltenberg said, repeating the term “legitimate” to describe Turkey’s concerns.
In another report, the Finnish President emphasized his “surprise” at Ankara’s attitude, explaining that until a few months ago he always noticed Turkey’s “favorable attitude” towards its accession.
Stoltenberg’s working visit to Helsinki will be followed on Monday by the Secretary General’s meeting in Stockholm with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, whose country joined NATO in parallel with Finland.
Both Scandinavian states, which are members of the EU but not the Atlantic Alliance, changed their traditional line of military non-alignment after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, leading to a shift in public opinion away from neutrality.
