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NATO allies read Turkey’s wish list as Ankara holds up membership bids

Ankara has listed the presence of what it calls terrorists in Sweden and Finland as its main objection to their accession but other factors could feature.

MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
US President Joe Biden (C) welcomes Finnish President Sauli Niinisto (L) and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson to the White House in Washington, DC, on May 19, 2022. — MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

ISTANBUL — The deadlock created by Turkey’s foot-dragging over extending NATO membership to Sweden and Finland has left the alliance’s diplomats again striving to decode Ankara’s intentions. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared to put the brakes on the Nordic countries joining NATO last week, commenting, “We don’t feel positively about this.” He went further on Wednesday, when he directly linked their membership to extraditing “terrorists.”

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