Top Turkish, Finnish and Swedish diplomats will hold a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of a Nov. 29-30 NATO summit in Bucharest to discuss the Nordic countries’ NATO membership bids, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Monday, cautioning that no breakthrough is expected.
Sweden and Finland have abandoned their historical policy of military non-alignment following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, officially applying to NATO membership. Yet Turkey has threatened to impede the expansion unless Stockholm and Helsinki fulfill their promises to Ankara under a June deal reached between the three countries. Under the deal, both Nordic capitals pledged to address Ankara’s security concerns and to lift their de facto arms embargo against Ankara.
