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Turkiye, Sweden, Finland Agree to Meet Before NATO Summit in July

NATO flag - Sputnik International, 1920, 09.03.2023
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BRUSSELS (Sputnik) - The representatives of Sweden and Finland held consultations with Turkiye on ratification of their applications for NATO membership and agreed to meet in the same format again before the NATO summit in Vilnius in July, the statement of the alliance said on Thursday.
"The representatives of Turkiye, Finland, and Sweden discussed the concrete steps that have been taken to implement the Trilateral Memorandum. As agreed in the Memorandum, there are no arms export restrictions between them; they have significantly enhanced counter-terrorism cooperation; and Sweden is now in the process of tightening anti-terrorism legislation, including against the PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party]. All participants welcomed the progress that has been made," the statement read.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg convened the representatives of the three countries in Brussels in the headquarters of NATO.
Stoltenberg said in his opening speech that Finland and Sweden had taken unprecedented steps in order to address Turkiye's security concerns, which are legitimate. He urged all sides to complete the ratification process and to accept Finland and Sweden as full-fledged members of NATO.
Sweden parliament building - Sputnik International, 1920, 03.03.2023
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The Permanent Joint Mechanism was established by the Trilateral Memorandum signed in Madrid on the margins of the 2022 NATO Summit.
Before that, on May 18, Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership. In January, a far-right activist burnt a copy of the Quran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm prompting Ankara to suspend the ratification process of Sweden's application to NATO.
At the meeting of the NATO defense ministers on February 14-15, Stoltenberg said that he would recommend that Turkiye ratified the applications of Sweden and Finland simultaneously, but does not consider it to be priority. He added that the most important is that the two countries join NATO, thus contributing to the collective defense and security.
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