Stoltenberg summons Finland, Sweden and Turkey next week to unblock NATO membership

BRUSELAS, 28 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, has announced a meeting between Finland, Sweden and Turkey next week at NATO headquarters to unblock the accession of the two candidates to join the military organization, which has been bogged down for months by the reluctance from Ankara alluding to the lack of cooperation in the fight against the terrorism of Kurdish groups.

In statements from Finland, where he will meet with the president, Sauli Niinisto, and the prime minister, Sanna Marin, the NATO political chief has defended that the entry of Stockholm and Helsinki into the alliance as soon as possible is a "priority" and has reiterated that both have complied with their trilateral agreements with Ankara.

"We are making progress. A couple of weeks ago I met with President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan and we agreed to have a meeting with Finland, Sweden, Turkey in Brussels next week," the former Norwegian prime minister said about the ratification process, pending green light from Turkey and Hungary.

After months of blockade, NATO now marks the summit of allied leaders in Vilnius, Lithuania, next July as the deadline for accession for Swedes and Finns, after assuming that the electoral landscape in Turkey leads to a delay until summer ratification upon admission to Stockholm and Helsinki

"My message is that both Finland and Sweden have fulfilled what they promised in the trilateral agreement they signed with Turkey last June in Madrid," Stoltenberg argued from the Finnish capital, although he has acknowledged that now the responsibility to ratify the accession of the new members correspond to the allies. "We do not have a date but we are working to make it happen as soon as possible," he said, about the deadline for the Swedes and Finns to join NATO.

In any case, he has assured that he is "totally convinced" that Sweden and Finland will be members of NATO, recalling that the 30 allies agreed to invite Sweden and Finland to join and, subsequently, they all signed the access protocol.

For her part, Sanna Marin stressed that the entry of Finland and Sweden into the military alliance reinforces NATO's "enlargement policy and credibility", but recalled, on the other hand, that the issue is "in hands". from Hungary and Turkey. "We are waiting for the ratification process to finish, sooner rather than later, we hope it will be before the summit," she stressed.