Turkey at the NATO summit in Madrid this week will support the application for entry into the union of Finland and Sweden. This is stated in the statement of the President of Finland Sauli Niinistö. Until now, Turkey has been the only NATO member country opposed to countries joining the union.
According to the President of the country, before the start of the summit, the leaders of all three countries and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg held a meeting, as a result of which the foreign ministers of Turkey, Sweden and Finland signed a memorandum confirming Turkey's intention to support the membership of Finland and Sweden in NATO.
“The memorandum highlights the commitment of Finland, Sweden and Turkey to combat threats to each other's security. Our NATO membership will only strengthen this commitment,” the statement said.
Sweden and Finland have committed not to support the PKK, YPG and FËTO. Turkey considers these organizations terrorist. Due to the fact that some of their supporters are hiding in Finland and Sweden, Turkey refused to support the entry of countries into NATO.
Sweden and Finland officially announced in mid-May that they intended to apply for membership in NATO. The decision to abandon the previous policy of neutrality was prompted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
For a country to join NATO, all three dozen countries that are members of the alliance must support its application.