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NATO chief urges Turkey to stop stalling Sweden, Finland accession

Both Turkey's president and foreign minister tell the NATO secretary-general that steps from Sweden and Finland will determine the pace of Ankara’s ratification of the Nordic accession.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar (L) speaks with Sweden's Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist ahead of the second day of a meeting of the alliance's Defense Ministers at the NATO headquarters in Brussels on Oct. 13, 2022.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged Turkey to ratify the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO as soon as possible, saying those two countries had lived up to their obligations to address Turkey’s security concerns.

But Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, said that while progress was made, it was still impossible to say that Turkey’s conditions had been fully met. Cavusoglu, however, added that Turkey had a more positive outlook toward the new Swedish government and was looking forward to the visit of  Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson “in a few days.”

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