Africa-Press – Botswana. Representatives from Turkey, Finland and Sweden meet this Friday in an unidentified location in Finland to discuss the two Nordic countries’ membership of the NATO transatlantic alliance and Turkey’s concerns.
Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs refused to disclose the location and time of the meeting, citing a “security issue”.
“This is a security issue. If we told you where Turkey’s top officials are at what time, it would give a pretty careless image of us,” Secretary of State Haavisto Jukka Salovaara told Finnish state station Yle.
Last week, the Finnish Foreign Minister, Pekka Haavisto, specified that the meeting would aim to establish contacts and define objectives for cooperation between the three countries.
It should be noted that Sweden and Finland applied to NATO following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The candidacy was not well received by Turkey, which has accused the Nordics of imposing an arms embargo on Ankara and supporting groups it considers terrorists.
The three States signed, on the occasion of the NATO summit in Madrid, an agreement in which Turkey undertook to withdraw its veto in exchange for concessions from the Nordics.
More than 20 countries have already ratified the entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO.
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