Sweden and Finland have taken “positive steps” in the fight against terrorism, a condition Ankara imposed in order to approve their NATO membership, Turkey’s diplomat chief Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday.
“The new government in Sweden is more determined than the previous one and we welcome that. (…) They have made changes in the law and everything that represents positive steps,” affirmed Mr. Cavusoglu during a press conference in Bucharest on the sidelines of the meeting of NATO heads of diplomacy.
On the sidelines of this meeting, the foreign ministers of Sweden, Finland and Turkey met on Tuesday.
“We had a very good meeting yesterday (…). I have to say that after this meeting I felt progress,” for his part assured the head of Swedish diplomacy Tobias Billstrom, indicating that he would soon travel to Ankara to plead for Sweden’s accession to NATO.
However, the Turkish minister added that despite “beautiful declarations and good determination” from two Nordic countries, Turkey is still waiting for “concrete measures”.
“We have yet to see concrete action in areas such as extraditing criminals, freezing terrorist groups’ assets and ending their activities. Yes, there have been positive steps like legislative changes, but we need to see their application,” he said.
Turkey accuses Sweden and Finland of being lenient towards the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) and its allies, such as the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Ankara has blocked the two Nordic countries’ entry into the Atlantic Alliance since May and signed a memorandum of understanding with them in June, linking their membership to their fight against Kurdish movements and their supporters on their soil.
During a visit to Ankara in early November, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson pledged to address Turkey’s concerns in its fight against terrorism in order to remove any obstacle to its entry into NATO.