Finland and Sweden will send delegations to Ankara on Wednesday in efforts to negotiate Turkey's opposition to the two Nordic countries' Nato membership applications, Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto (Green) has revealed.
"We are sending our delegations to visit Ankara, actually both Sweden and Finland. This will happen tomorrow so the dialogue is continuing," Haavisto said.
He made the comments during a panel discussion at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday.
The foreign affairs ministry has not yet offered details about who will make up the delegation being sent to Turkey, however.
Turkey's President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has accused Finland — and Sweden in particular — of supporting the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which the EU considers a terrorist organisation. Nato membership requires approval by all 30 current member states.
Haavisto addressed the topic during Tuesday's panel discussion in Davos.
"We understand that Turkey has some of their own security concerns vis-à-vis terrorism. We think that these issues can be settled. There might be also some issues that are not linked directly to Finland and Sweden but more to other Nato members," Haavisto said, according to Reuters.
Erdoğan has also criticised Finland's and Sweden's restrictions on defence exports and their refusal to extradite Turkish citizens.
The Turkish president spoke with Finnish and Swedish leaders over the weekend.
During the panel discussion, Haavisto also explained that Finland's decision to apply to the military alliance was due to changes in the architecture of European security, a change in Russia's nuclear rhetoric and the war crimes committed by Russia in its ongoing attack on Ukraine.
