Turkey renews risk to dam Swedish, Finnish NATO bids

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday warned Turkey wouldn’t ratify the NATO membership bids of Sweden and Finland till the 2 Nordic international locations “kept” guarantees they’d made to Ankara.

“Until the promises made to our country are kept, we will maintain our principled position,” Erdogan stated in a speech to parliament in Ankara.

“We are closely following whether the promises made by Sweden and Finland are kept or not, and of course, the final decision will be up to our great parliament,” he added.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February noticed the 2 Nordic international locations abandon a long time of army non-alignment and in May apply to affix NATO.

Although the Nordic international locations hoped for a speedy entry, Turkey delayed the method by objecting to their membership.

Erdogan has accused each international locations of being havens for Kurdish militants, particularly highlighting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and for selling “terrorism”.

A deal was then struck between the three international locations in June, which included provisions on extraditions and sharing of knowledge, clearing the way in which for NATO to formally invite the 2 nations to affix the alliance.

So far, 28 out of 30 NATO members have ratified Finland and Sweden’s membership.

Only Hungary and Turkey have but to ship the membership bids to their parliaments for ratification.

In an apparently important concession to Ankara, Sweden on Friday introduced they’d re-authorised exports of struggle supplies to Turkey.

Ankara had requested the lifting of the restrictions, which have been launched in 2019 following a Turkish offensive in northeastern Syria.