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Turkey postpones NATO talks with Sweden, Finland

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In this file photo, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (L), NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (C) and then-Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson take part in a meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Madrid, on June 28, 2022. (Photo by Henrik MONTGOMERY / TT News Agency / AFP) The leaders of Finland and Sweden met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday ahead of a NATO summit in Madrid in a bid to get him to drop objections to them joining, Agence France-Presse reported. Erdoğan has stubbornly refused to greenlight the applications from the Nordic pair -- lodged in response to Russia's war on Ukraine -- despite calls from his NATO allies to clear the path for them to enter. He was expected to meet with US President Joe Biden on Wednesday on the sidelines of the gathering focused on responding to the Kremlin's invasion of its pro-Western neighbor. Turkey can essentially veto Finland and Sweden from joining NATO since all members must agree to taking on new members. Ankara has accused Finland and more particularly Sweden of offering a safe haven to Kurdish militants who have been waging decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state. The Turkish leader has also called on the two countries to lift arms embargoes imposed on Turkey in 2019 over Ankara's military offensive in Syria. Sweden and Finland went into the NATO meeting open to the possibility that Turkey might only lift its objections after the summit concludes on Thursday. "We have made progress. That is definitely the case," said Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde. "We are prepared for something positive to happen today, but also for it to take more time," she added. "We must be patient and continue discussions even after the summit." Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said he was neither "optimistic nor pessimistic at this stage.” But Erdoğan said he wanted to see the results of preparatory talks held on Monday in Brussels before deciding whether Sweden and Finland had done enough to lift his objections to their membership of NATO. "We will see what point they (Finland and Sweden) have reached," he said on Monday before flying to Madrid for the summit. "We do not want empty words. We want results." 'Interest of the alliance´ Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Biden and Erdoğan would "at some point" meet on Wednesday on the sidelines of the summit. But he stressed the United States was not adopting a "brokering role" and would leave the NATO secretary general in charge. "Rather, we're going to do what many other allies have done which is indicate publicly and privately that we believe it is in the interest of the alliance to get this done," he added. "And we also believe that Finland and Sweden have taken significant steps forward in terms of addressing Turkey's concerns." Analysts believe the meeting between Erdoğan and Biden could play a crucial role in breaking down Turkey's resistance to bids by Sweden and Finland to join the Western defense alliance in response to the war. The two leaders have had a chilly relationship since Biden's election because of US concerns about human rights under Erdoğan. Biden and Erdoğan last met briefly in October on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Rome.

Turkey on Tuesday postponed NATO accession talks with Sweden and Finland, further denting the Nordic neighbors’ hopes of joining the Western defense alliance after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Agence France-Presse reported.

Ankara announced its decision one day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan lashed out at Sweden for allowing weekend protests that included the burning of the Quran outside Ankara’s Stockholm embassy.

A Turkish diplomatic source said the tri-party meeting has been pushed back from February to a “later date,” without providing further details.

The decision further diminished the chances of the two countries joining NATO before Turkey’s May presidential and parliamentary elections.

Finland, which shares a 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) border with Russia, and Sweden decided jointly to end their decades-long policies of military non-alignment, winning formal support for their plans at a historic NATO summit in June.

The two countries’ bids were then swiftly ratified by 28 of NATO’s 30 member states, highlighting the issues’ urgency in the face of Russia’s aggression.Bids to join NATO must be ratified by all members of the alliance, of which Turkey is a member.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has promised that his parliament would approve the two bids next month.

But Erdoğan has dug in his heels heading into a close presidential election in which he is trying to energize his nationalist electoral base.

Erdoğan’s resistance prompted Finland to hint for the first time on Tuesday that it may try to join on its own because of Stockholm’s diplomatic problems with Ankara.

“We have to assess the situation, whether something has happened that in the longer term would prevent Sweden from going ahead,” Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told broadcaster Yle.

‘Permanently barred’

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said he was “in contact with Finland to find out what this really means.”

Haavisto later clarified his comments, saying he did not want to “speculate” on Finland joining alone “as both countries seem to be making progress,” and emphasizing their commitment to a joint application.

But “of course, somewhere in the back of our minds, we are thinking about different worlds where some countries would be permanently barred from membership,” he said.

Swedish leaders have roundly condemned the Quran burning but defended their country’s broad definition of free speech.

The incident came just weeks after a support group for armed Kurdish groups in Syria, the Rojava Committee, hung an effigy of Erdoğan by the ankles in front of Stockholm City Hall, sparking outrage in Ankara.

Haavisto said the anti-Turkey protests had “clearly put a brake on the progress” of the applications by Finland and Sweden.

“My own assessment is that there will be a delay, which will certainly last until the Turkish elections in mid-May,” Haavisto said.

‘Plan B’ out in the open

Turkey has indicated that it has no major objections to Finland’s entry into NATO.

Helsinki had refused until now to speculate on the option of joining without Sweden, emphasizing the benefits of joint membership with its neighbor.

But “frustration has grown in various corners of Helsinki,” and “for the first time it was said out loud that there are other possibilities”, Matti Pesu, a researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, told AFP.

“There has been a change” in the Finnish position, he said. “These Plan Bs are being said out loud.”

Pesu noted that while Turkey had so far given no indication it would treat the two applications “separately,” it will be “interesting to see how Turkey reacts” to Haavisto’s comments.

Ankara signed a memorandum of understanding with the two Nordic countries at the end of June, paving the way for the membership process to begin.

But Ankara says its demands remain unfulfilled, in particular for the extradition of Turkish citizens that Turkey wants to prosecute for “terrorism.”

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