Turkey agrees to support bid by Sweden and Finland to join NATO

NATO member Turkey has agreed to support Sweden and Finland's membership of the alliance. It had initially opposed the Nordic countries' bids to join. In a statement, NATO said, a trilateral deal had been reached at a meeting between Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Finland's President Sauli Niinistö and the Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, in the Spanish capital, Madrid. Foreign Ministers from the three countries signed a joint security pact that addressed Turkey's concerns. NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg said, Sweden agreed to step up its work on Turkish extradition requests of suspected militants. The two Nordic nations will also lift their restrictions on selling weapons to Turkey, he said. Sweden and Finland had historically declined to seek Nato membership, partly because of mixed public opinion and caution around their security relationship with Russia. However, that dramatically changed after Russia launched an military opration on Ukraine in February.

Under NATO treaties, an attack on any member would be considered an attack against all and trigger a military response by the entire alliance. NATO operates by consensus, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had threatened to block the Nordic pair, insisting they change their stance on Kurdish rebel groups that Turkey considers terrorists. Turkey said it had “got what it wanted” including “full cooperation … in the fight against” the rebel groups. Stoltenberg said leaders of the 30-nation alliance will issue a formal invitation to the two countries to join NATO. The decision has to be ratified by all individual nations, but he said he was “absolutely confident” Finland and Sweden would become members, something that could happen within months.