Türkiye to freeze Nordic states’ entry to NATO if deal fails

ANKARA 

Türkiye will freeze the admission process of Sweden and Finland if they fail to implement the trilateral agreement signed during the Madrid Summit, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said.

“I want to reiterate once again that we will freeze the process if Sweden and Finland don’t take the necessary steps concerning our conditions,” Erdoğan said after a routine cabinet meeting on July 18.

Türkiye, Sweden and Finland signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding that obliges the two Nordic states to cooperate with Türkiye against the terrorist organizations in return for entering NATO.

Türkiye gave a conditional green light to them, Erdoğan said, referring to the fact that the Turkish Parliament should also approve the bids of Sweden and Finland.

“I should particularly emphasize that Sweden is not giving a good picture,” the president said, referring to the continued PKK activities in that country. Sweden and Finland promised to take stricter measures to stop the activities of the terror organizations on their soil and extradite terror suspects demanded by Türkiye.

Erdoğan earlier had said Sweden promised to extradite 73 terrorists to Türkiye.

Both countries have abandoned their decades-old neutrality and decided to join NATO following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The parliaments of all 30 countries need to ratify their admission to the alliance.