Foreign ministers from Turkey, Sweden, and Finland gather in Brussels on July 6, for a pivotal meeting, with all attention centred on Turkey. Hungary declares its alignment with Ankara's decision. The top priority on the agenda at the Vilnius Summit in Lithuania on July 11-12 is Sweden's potential NATO membership.
Before the important meeting in Brussels, Turkey announced that it will not approve Sweden's NATO membership if Stockholm does not take measures to implement agreements with Ankara, TGRT Haber reported.
"Sweden has not yet taken the steps that Turkey expects. Although Sweden passed an anti-terrorism law on June 1, Stockholm did not extradite terrorists upon Ankara's request. Turkey has made it clear that it will not approve Sweden's NATO membership unless Sweden takes these steps," the statement said.
Turkey will be represented at the meeting by Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Head of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) Ibrahim Kalin, and Presidential Advisor Akif Çağatay Kılıç.
Finland and Sweden both applied for NATO membership following the events in Ukraine in May 2022. All NATO countries agreed to their accession at the Madrid summit in June 2022. The ratification process began at the national parliament level of member countries. By early 2023, 28 out of 30 NATO countries had ratified Finland's application. However, Hungary and Turkey wished to consider Sweden's application separately. Finland's application was ratified on March 31, and Finland became the 31st NATO member on April 4. Sweden's application is still pending Hungarian and Turkish approval.
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