Turkey wants written response from Finland, Sweden over NATO bid concerns

Turkey said on Wednesday it was waiting for a “written response” from Sweden and Finland to Ankara’s objections to their NATO bids, Agence France-Presse reported.

“We have transmitted our questions in writing to these two countries,” Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told reporters.

“Now we’re waiting for their written responses,” he said.

The two Nordic countries reversed decades of military non-alignment by applying for NATO membership in May, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Any NATO membership deal must, however, be unanimously approved by all 30 members of the alliance, and Turkey has thrown a wrench in the works and blocked their bids.

Ankara is accusing the Nordic neighbors of providing a safe haven for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told members of his party on Wednesday that “as long as Sweden and Finland don’t adopt concrete measures on the fight against terrorism, our position will not change.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday, during a visit to Sweden, that NATO was working “hard and actively” to resolve Turkey’s concerns “as soon as possible.”

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin acknowledged on Tuesday that the Nordic bids could stall if an agreement with Turkey is not reached before a summit later in June.