Finnish, Turkish FMs discuss NATO process over phone

Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto on Monday held a telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu and discussed the situation of the ratification process for the membership of Finland and Sweden to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), said the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in a twitter post.

“We had a telephone conversation on our bilateral relations and the current Nato process of Finland and Sweden,” the ministry wrote in a twitter post, quoting Haavisto as saying.

“Always good to have a direct contact with my Turkish colleague FM Mevlut Cavusoglu,” Haavisto added.

The telephone conversation was held after two days of the announcement made by the Turkish Defence Minister, who cancelled the schedule visit of Swedish Defense Minister to Turkey.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar on Saturday announced that a planned visit by Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson to Turkey had been canceled.

Turkey blocked the NATO membership of Finland and Sweden demanding concrete Finnish and Swedish actions to address Turkish security concerns over extraditing hostile groups members before it unblocks their accession into NATO.

Another country Hungary did not ratify the membership yet, although Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on November 2 assured President Sauli Niinistö that his country will ratify Finland´s NATO accession protocol.

Finland and Sweden submitted the NATO membership applications in May.

Their accession procedure officially started in early July after 30 NATO members, including Turkey signed accession protocols.

So far 28 countries out of total 30 ratified the NATO accession protocols for Finland and Sweden.

The countries are USA, Italy, Canada, Estonia, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, United Kingdom, Albania, Poland, Latvia, Slovenia, Croatia, The Netherlands, Luxemburg, Bulgaria, Germany, Romania, Lithuania, Montenegro, Belgium, North Macedonia, France, Czech Republic, Greece, Spain Portugal and Slovakia ratified the membership protocols.

In late June, 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.