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NATO

Swedish and Turkish foreign ministers to meet to discuss Nato

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday that he would meet with his Swedish and Finnish counterparts to discuss their bid to join Nato on the margins of the alliance's meeting in Bucharest on Tuesday.

Swedish and Turkish foreign ministers to meet to discuss Nato
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu speaks to the media during a press conferences with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, in Istanbul on November 3rd. Photo: AFP

“We will come together with Swedish and Finnish foreign ministers tomorrow in Bucharest under a trilateral format,” Cavusoglu was quoted as saying by the private NTV broadcaster.

Ankara has accused the two Nordic nations of providing a safe haven for outlawed Kurdish militants it deems “terrorists” and held back on ratifying their Nato membership despite an agreement in June.

“The process is progressing positively, but there are still steps to be taken,” Cavusoglu said. “In fact, Sweden is the country that needs to take more steps.”

Finland and Sweden dropped decades of military non-alignment and scrambled to become Nato members in May, after Russia invaded Ukraine.

New Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson visited Ankara early this month to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as Stockholm hoped to secure Turkey’s approval.

Ahead of that trip, Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg, who met with Cavusoglu and Erdogan in Istanbul, said both countries were committed to working with Turkey to address its concerns, adding it is time to welcome them.

Among all Nato members, only Hungary and Turkey are left to green-light their application.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said last week parliament would approve Finland and Sweden’s accession to Nato next year.

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MILITARY

Sweden prepared to manage Nato land force in Finland

Sweden is willing to manage a future Nato land force in neighbouring Finland, which shares a border with Russia, the two newest members of the military alliance announced on Monday.

Sweden prepared to manage Nato land force in Finland

The two Nordic nations dropped decades of military non-alignment and applied for Nato membership in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Finland became a member in 2023 and Sweden this year.

Nato said in July that a so-called Forward Land Forces (FLF) presence should be developed in Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometre (830-mile) border with Russia.

“This kind of military presence in a Nato country requires a framework nation which plays an important role in the implementation of the concept,” Finnish Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen told a press conference.

The countries said Finland had asked Sweden to manage the force.

“The Swedish government has the ambition to take the role as a framework nation for a forward land force in Finland,” Häkkänen’s Swedish counterpart Pål Jonson told reporters.

Jonson stressed the process was still in an “early stage” and details would be worked out inside Nato.

There would also be further consultations with the Swedish parliament, he said.

Häkkänen said details about the actual force would be clarified through planning with other Nato members, adding that the number of troops and their exact location had not yet been decided.

Nato says it currently has eight such forward presences, or “multinational battlegroups”, in Eastern Europe – in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

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