Finland, Sweden to meet with Turkey in August to review NATO bids

Finland and Sweden will hold a meeting with Turkey in August to review Turkey´s extradition requests for "terror suspects" and its position regarding Finland, Sweden´s NATO membership, reported Xinhua, quoting Turkish foreign minister on Thursday.

The meeting in August will evaluate the Nordic countries' progress made in fulfilling Ankara's counter-terrorism demands in order to ratify their NATO membership bid, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview with the state-run TRT broadcaster.

The minister reiterated that the Turkish parliament may reject their accession process the demands are not fulfilled.

Earlier on July 18, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated that he would freeze the bids from Finland and Sweden to join the NATO alliance if they do not keep the promises they made to secure Turkey's support last month

Turkey initially blocked the Finland, Sweden´s membership bids accusing the Nordic countries of harboringanti-Turkey terrorist groups Workers' Party (PKK) and the Gulen movement.

On June 28, the Foreign Ministers of Finland, Sweden and Turkey signed a trilateral memorandum which confirms that Turkey will support the Finland´s and Sweden´s NATO membership applications at the Madrid Summit.

On June 30, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Sweden and Finland's accession to NATO could still be blocked if the countries did not fulfill their end of a bargain with Ankara to extradite wanted individuals deemed by Turkey to be "terrorists."

On July 1, Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said that no change to Finnish law was agreed upon in any form in the trilateral memorandum signed among Finland, Sweden and Turkey.

On July 5, NATO Ambassadors signed the Accession Protocols for Finland and Sweden at NATO Headquarters in Brussels.