Turkey seeks assurances on Sweden, Finland bids

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeated that actions must be taken to address "legitimate concerns" his government has about Sweden and Finland's NATO membership requests.

In a phone call with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday, Erdogan insisted that Turkey must have written assurances from both countries before any progress can be made on their applications, according to news agency reports.

Erdogan emphasized that they "cannot achieve progress in the process without concrete steps that meet Turkey's rightful expectations, and without giving written commitments to a paradigm shift in the fight against terrorism and defense industry cooperation", said an official statement from the Turkish government.

The Nordic nations formally applied to join NATO last month following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict that began in February.

Turkey has objected to the applications, citing Swedish and Finnish links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known as the PKK, and other anti-Turkey groups.

The Indo-Asian News Service, or IANS, noted that the PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, and has been agitating against the Turkish government for more 30 years.

Turkey also claims both countries have given shelter to members of the Gulen Movement, which the government says instigated a failed military coup attempt in 2016.

Ankara's expectations had not been met by documents filed by Sweden, according to Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who was quoted by news agencies as saying that any negotiations on the NATO bids would have to address Turkey's demands. It was noted that Cavusoglu had previously insisted the two countries should amend their laws if needed to gain the support of Turkey for their NATO bids.

Stoltenberg posted on social media saying he had a "constructive conversation" with Erdogan ahead of the NATO summit in Madrid that will be held June 29-30.

"We discussed the importance of addressing Turkey's legitimate security concerns on the fight against terrorism and making progress in the NATO accession process for Finland and Sweden," he said.

While on a visit to Sweden on Monday, Stoltenberg was quoted by agencies as saying that NATO was working "hard and actively "to address Turkey's concerns "as soon as possible".

On Tuesday, Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin was reported to have said the Nordic nations' bids could "freeze" if consensus with Turkey is not achieved prior to the NATO summit.