Turkey: Sweden, Finland NATO talks to resume in March

Turkey said on Monday that NATO accession talks with Sweden and Finland will be held on March 9.

The talks had been postponed in January over a row with Stockholm.

What did Turkey say about the meeting?

"The meeting will be held on March 9," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a news conference in Ankara.

Cavusoglu said the meeting would be held in Brussels. It is the third trilateral meeting on the accession bid.

Turkey's foreign minister said that Ankara could consider Sweden and Finland's membership separately.

"It is not possible for us to give consent (to a NATO bid) before Sweden fulfills its commitments," he said. "Unfortunately, we have not seen satisfactory steps from Sweden on the implementation of the Madrid memorandum."

Sweden signed the memorandum last June. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said that Stockholm had changed its legislation to be in line with the agreement.

Sweden's bid facing difficulties

NATO membership requires unanimous agreement among all members of the alliance, including Turkey.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he would not support Sweden's accession bid over recent protests in Stockholm.

In one demonstration organized by a Kurdish group, an effigy of Erdogan was shown hanging from its feet in Stockholm. Another protest was organized by far-right politician Rasmus Paludan, who burned a copy of the Quran in front of the Turkish embassy.

Erdogan faces a tightly contested presidential election in June.

Turkey has also demanded that Sweden extradite dozens of suspects, including those it suspects of ties to Kurdish militant groups or to a failed coup attempt in 2016.

sdi/ar (AFP, Reuters)