A trilateral meeting took place between Turkiye, Sweden, and Finland in the Turkish capital of Ankara hosted by Ambassador Akif Çağatay Kılıç, the chief foreign policy advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The fourth meeting on a permanent joint mechanism held on Wednesday aims to assess to what extent Sweden has fulfilled its commitments in the fight against terrorism.
Türkiye and Hungary continue to oppose Sweden’s admission to the alliance unless it fulfills certain conditions.
Turkiye is waiting for Sweden to abide by a trilateral memorandum signed last year during the North Atlantic Council in Madrid to address Ankara’s security concerns.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on the other hand claimed that Sweden fulfilled its obligations and called on Ankara to drop its opposition.
In June 2022, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Türkiye, President Sauli Niinistö of Finland, and former Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden signed a trilateral memorandum to address Türkiye’s legitimate security concerns. In November, Sweden passed an anti-terror law passed that allows authorities to prosecute individuals who support terrorist groups.
The new law which took effect on June 1, 2023, sparked hopes Ankara would approve Stockholm’s bid to join NATO.
The latest meeting in Ankara was held a month before the NATO leaders convene in a crucial summit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius.
