Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Finnish counterpart Pekka Haavisto discussed the expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance. This was announced on Friday, March 17, by the head of the Turkish Foreign Ministry on social networks.
Cavusoglu noted that the meeting with Haavisto took place before the visit of Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, writes RIA News. “We discussed the issues of NATO expansion,” the Turkish Foreign Minister wrote. He also thanked Finland for its support in dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake.
It is noted that the head of Finland is in Turkey on an official visit. Niinistö visited the earthquake region in the southeast of the country. In addition, the talks between the Finnish and Turkish presidents were supposed to take place in Istanbul, but later they were moved to Ankara.
As Profile.ru reported, the Finnish Parliament on March 1 approved the bill on joining NATO, previously submitted by the government. At the national level, ratification will be completed after the signing of the necessary documents by the Finnish President.
In the spring of 2022, Finland and Sweden submitted applications to the NATO Secretary General to join the Alliance against the backdrop of the Ukrainian conflict. So far, 28 out of 30 NATO members have ratified the two countries’ accession to the North Atlantic Alliance. Turkey refuses to ratify the protocol on accession of the Scandinavian countries to NATO. Ankara links the signing of this document with the fulfillment by Sweden and Finland of a number of obligations. We are talking about the termination of support for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the extradition of its activists to Turkey. The Turkish authorities consider this organization a terrorist organization.
