Türkiye may give different answers to Finnish, Swedish NATO applications

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said that Ankara may agree to Finland joining NATO ahead of Sweden, amid growing tensions with Stockholm.

“We may deliver Finland a different message [on their NATO application] and Sweden would be shocked when they see our message. But Finland should not make the same mistake Sweden did,” Arab News quotes Erdogan as saying in a televised speech on January 29.

“We gave Sweden a list of 120 persons and told them to extradite those terrorists in their country. If you don’t extradite them, then sorry about that,” Erdogan said, referring to Türkiye’s agreement with Sweden and Finland dated June 2022 over their NATO application.

In 2022, the two Nordic states applied to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and need all member countries’ approval to join. Türkiye and Hungary are yet to ratify the Nordic countries’ membership.

Türkiye suspended NATO talks with Sweden and Finland after a recent protest in Stockholm in which a far-right politician burned a copy of the Quran.