What Did Turkey, Sweden and Finland Agree to in ‘Trilateral Memorandum’?
© AFP 2023 / JOHANNA GERON
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Following an agreement with Turkey at the NATO summit in Madrid on Tuesday, the alliance formally extended a membership invitation to Sweden and Finland, marking its ninth such expansion since forming in 1949.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dropped his opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO following the signing of a trilateral memorandum with the two nations on Tuesday, which was witnessed by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
The two nations had applied to join NATO in May, following the start of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine in February, which aimed to prevent Ukraine from joining the alliance and posing an existential danger to Russia.
Here’s what the three nations agreed to:
Finland and Sweden agreed to fully support Turkey “against threats to its national security,” and condemned the Kurdish YPG/PYD militia and Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), as well as the Gülenist movement group called FETO by the Turkish government. The two nations also agreed to end all their support for the YPG/PYD and PKK.
Finland and Sweden will categorize the PKK as a terrorist organization and commit to preventing PKK activities and blocking support for them.
Sweden and Finland agreed to end their embargo on selling weapons to Turkey, which was put in place following Ankara’s invasion of Kurdish-held areas of eastern Syria in late 2019.
The three nations agreed to cooperate on law enforcement and intelligence issues, including Turkey’s requests to extradite Kurdish suspects from Finland and Sweden. Finland and Sweden committed to interdicting PKK financing, recruitment, and “disinformation” activities in their own countries.
Finland and Sweden agreed to support Turkey’s involvement in the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy and PESCO.
Turkey agreed to drop its opposition to Finland and Sweden becoming members of NATO.
