NATO sees importance in addressing Turkey's doubts and hopes to unblock the accession of Sweden and Finland

BRUSSELS, 24 May. (EUROPE PRESS) -

NATO has attached importance this Tuesday to addressing the security concerns that Turkey alludes to veto the entry of Sweden and Finland in the military organization and hopes to advance the situation through direct dialogue with Ankara.

In his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland), NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg insisted that it is important to study the security concerns of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, given that the country is the member NATO that hosts more refugees and has suffered more terrorist attacks on its own territory.

All NATO members agree that the enlargement policy has been a "great success", explained the former Norwegian prime minister, who has been "confident" that the organization will find a way to deal with security concerns " of all the allies.

Ankara has vetoed the opening of negotiations with Stockholm and Helsinki citing links with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a setback that upsets NATO's plans for an 'express' accession.

"I spoke with Turkish President Erdogan on Saturday and we have to do what we always do in NATO, which is to sit down and address concerns," he said, when asked about the Turkish blockade.

"I am confident that we can now find a way to resolve these issues and we can welcome Sweden and Finland as full members," argued NATO's political chief, who has insisted that the entry of these two new members will strengthen the alliance and improve security in the baltic region.

Thus, Stoltenberg has reiterated that the Atlantic Alliance is ready to meet the security guarantees demanded by the two Scandinavian countries over the interim period until they officially become members of NATO and the mutual defense clause is in force.

In this sense, he has said that the Atlantic Alliance is "vigilant" in the Baltic Sea region and the allies have already increased their presence in the area and are carrying out exercises in the area.

These statements have come shortly after learning that the governments of Finland and Sweden will send delegations to Turkey in the hope of smoothing over the "concerns" publicly expressed by Erdogan and that hamper the potential access to NATO of the two Nordic countries.

The NATO Secretary General has taken advantage of his presence at the economic forum to insist that "economic decisions have security consequences", one of the lessons he has asked to draw from the conflict in Ukraine.

"Freedom is more important than free trade. The protection of our values ​​is more important than profit," he assured at Davos.

Amid the climate of unprecedented sanctions against Moscow, Stoltenberg has warned of the consequences of having relations with authoritarian regimes and that it is not possible to "trade long-term security needs for short-term economic interests."