NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday that Finland was ready to address Turkey's "legitimate concerns" over terrorism and other issues raised amid the Nordic country's application for membership with the Western military alliance.
Previously, Turkey accused both Finland and Sweden of supporting Kurdish militants and argued that it will not support the two countries in their attempts to join NATO. but during a joint news conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Stoltenberg said that "no other NATO ally has suffered more terrorist attacks than Turkey."
Addressing Turkey's Concerns
The NATO chief pointed to Turkey's strategic geographic location with neighbors like Iraq and Syria for its chaotic situation. Stoltenberg noted that the concerns were legitimate, saying it was about terrorism and weapons exports. He argued that the problem needed to be addressed because it concerns the security and safety of an ally.
Stoltenberg spoke at Finland's presidential summer residence Kultaranta located in the western parts of the nation. Russia's war in Ukraine pushed Finland and Sweden to apply to join NATO in May after decades of military non-alignment, as per the Associated Press.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, however, accused the two nations of allowing terrorists to set up in their territories. In a statement, Stoltenberg said that when a vital key ally such as Turkey raises concerns about terrorism, they have to be taken seriously.
Ankara's demands to Helsinki and Stockholm include lifting restrictions on arms exports to Turkey and extraditing members of certain Kurdish organizations that are opposed to Erdogan's government. In recent weeks, NATO's chief has been trying to resolve the dispute but did not reveal details on Sunday on whether any progress has been made.
According to Reuters, Stoltenberg said that Sweden has already started to change its counter-terrorism legislation and that the nation was ensuring that the legal framework for arms export will reflect the future status as a NATO member with new commitments to allies. The NATO chief was joined by Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.
NATO Expansion
Andersson said that her country had changed its terrorism laws and was already in the process of further tightening policies. She noted that from the first of July, they will also have even stronger legislation when it comes to the fight against terrorism.
Furthermore, the NATO chief said that the aim was to have Finland and Sweden join the Western military alliance "as soon as possible" and that it was inconceivable that allies would not come to Sweden's defense if it were attacked.
The situation comes as U.S. President Joe Biden celebrated the decision and Senators Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell jointly sponsored a resolution calling for expedited NATO accession. However, some believe that it is not the national interest of the U.S., through NATO, to commit to defending two wealthy European welfare states whose neutrality has kept them safe and prosperous for more than seven decades.
They argued that despite some claiming Russia's war on Ukraine changes everything, there will be new security guarantees that will force trade-offs, consume more resources, and increase the likelihood of a confrontation with a nuclear-armed adversary, Fox News reported.
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