Fri 17 March 2023:
The US welcomed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan’s announcement on Friday to move forward with Finland’s NATO membership bid, according to the White House, Anadolu Agency reported.
“The United States welcomes President Erdoğans announcement that he will send Finland’s NATO accession protocols to the Turkish Parliament and looks forward to the prompt conclusion of that process,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement.
“We encourage Türkiye to quickly ratify Sweden’s accession protocols as well. In addition, we urge Hungary to conclude its ratification process for both Finland and Sweden without delay,” he added.
Noting that Sweden and Finland are both “strong, capable partners that share NATO’s values,” he said that they will “strengthen” the Alliance and contribute to European security.
“The United States believes that both countries should become members of NATO as soon as possible,” he added.
Türkiye on Friday said it is approving the process of Finland’s NATO membership protocol in its parliament.
Noting that Finland has fulfilled Türkiye’s security concerns, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at a joint press conference with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto in Ankara, said: “We have decided to launch the approval process of Finland’s NATO membership protocol in our Parliament.”
On Sweden’s process, however, Erdogan said the process “will be directly linked to the concrete steps which Sweden will take.”
Abandoning decades of military non-alignment, Finland and Sweden formally applied to join NATO last May.
However, Türkiye, a longstanding NATO member, asked the two Nordic states to take concrete action against terror groups like the PKK and FETO.
Finland and Sweden signed a memorandum with Turkey in June to address Ankara’s security concerns, and senior diplomats and officials from the three countries have met several times since then to discuss how the trilateral agreement will be implemented.
Only Hungary and Turkey have yet to ratify Sweden’s and Finland’s applications for NATO membership.
Meanwhile, Sweden passed an anti-terror law in November, hoping that Ankara would approve Stockholm’s NATO membership bid. The new law, which takes effect on June 1, will enable Swedish authorities to prosecute individuals who provide support to terrorist organizations.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
