NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed today, Monday, that Turkey, Finland and Sweden had held "constructive" talks on Ankara's opposition to the two countries joining the alliance.
The two Scandinavian countries had previously applied to join in response to Russia's war on Ukraine, but the requests were opposed by Turkey, which was angered by what it describes as Helsinki and Stockholm's support for the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which it and its allies consider a terrorist organization, and an arms embargo on Ankara.
"We will continue to talk about the requests of Finland and Sweden to join NATO and I look forward to finding ways to move forward as quickly as possible," Stoltenberg said, after officials from the three countries met at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
For his part, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said that negotiations on Finland and Sweden's request to join the alliance and Ankara's concerns in this regard are continuing, and that the upcoming NATO summit in Madrid on June 29-30 is not the "deadline" to resolve it.
He stressed that NATO is a security alliance and that countries wishing to join it must meet the conditions for membership and address the security concerns of member states.
He also pointed out that the talks (with the Swedish and Finnish delegations at NATO headquarters) were frank and transparent, and that the concrete steps that the two countries will take will form the decisive factor in the next stage.
On the activities of supporting the PKK, Kalin stressed that Turkey is waiting for Stockholm to take quick steps in this regard, pointing out that he had heard positive statements from Swedish officials in this regard.
He stated that the Swedish side informed him that there is a new anti-terror law that will come into force as of the beginning of next July, noting that it is still too early to judge this step before its details become clear.
Countries' fears
On the other hand, North Macedonia's Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevsky stressed that his country is eagerly awaiting the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO, taking into account the concerns of all NATO countries.
This came in a joint press conference with his Finnish counterpart, Sana Marin, today, Monday, in the capital, Skopje, after a bilateral meeting and another at the level of delegations.
Kovacevsky indicated that North Macedonia expressed a positive opinion regarding the two countries' accession to NATO, indicating that his country supports the alliance's open door policy.
"I am waiting for both countries to become members as soon as possible, but the concerns of all NATO members must also be taken into account, and I hope that the suspension related to the membership application will be overcome as soon as possible, because we will provide full support," he added.
Regarding the Russian war on Ukraine and its impact on the alliance, Margyris Apokevicius, Lithuanian Deputy Defense Minister, said that the situation in Ukraine is difficult and it seems that it will last a long time, stressing that what is happening in this country does not constitute a direct threat only to his country but to all NATO countries.
The Lithuanian official stressed - in an interview with Al Jazeera - that the alliance should strongly support Ukraine to enable it to win the war.