"We would have hoped to become members of NATO already, Finland and Sweden fulfill all the criteria as it has been mentioned and we are yet waiting and of course this strains the open door policy of NATO as well, it has to do with NATO’s credibility, because we fill all the criteria, but this is in the hands of Turkiye and Hungary," Marin said during a joint press statement with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the SAMAK Nordic Summit in Finland.
Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership in May 2022 following the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine. By the end of 2022, their applications were ratified by 28 out of 30 NATO member states, with the exception of Hungary and Turkiye. Ankara's main reason for delaying its approval was the relation between Helsinki and Stockholm and some organizations affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which Turkiye views as terrorist.
A new round of tensions followed in the beginning of January 2023, when a far-right activist burnt a copy of Quran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. The action was condemned by Ankara, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying that Turkiye could not support Sweden's bid.