Turkish President Erdogan insists Sweden and Finland must fulfil Ankara’s demands before joining NATO

Turkish President Erdogan insists Sweden and Finland must fulfil Ankara's demands before joining NATO

Image of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Jens Stoltenberg. Credit: Twitter@jensstoltenberg

Erdogan: Sweden and Finland may only join NATO after fulfilling Ankara’s demands.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today, Friday, November 4, that Ankara’s approval of the applications of Sweden and Finland to join NATO will depend on their fulfilment of obligations under the Madrid memorandum on countering terrorism. 

As reported by TASS, Erdogan was speaking at a meeting held with Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Alliance. “The approval by Turkey of Finland and Sweden joining NATO will depend on the pace of their fulfilment to obligations under the Madrid Memorandum”, the head of state said.

Earlier, Stoltenberg said that Finland and Sweden had fulfilled Turkey’s demands and it was time to accept them into the alliance. Subsequently, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu commented that, according to Turkey, Sweden and Finland had not yet fulfilled all the stipulated requirements of Ankara for joining NATO.

Bekir Bozdag, the Turkish Justice Minister added that Finland and Sweden have not yet extradited a single terrorist to Turkey, while the Turkish side continues to insist on the extradition of people involved in alleged terrorist activities, as reported by gazeta.ru.

___________________________________________________________

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Do remember to come back and check The Euro Weekly News website for all your up-to-date local and international news stories and remember, you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Written by

Chris King

Originally from Wales, Chris spent years on the Costa del Sol before moving to the Algarve where he is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com

Comments