Sweden and Finland have made significant strides in negotiations with Türkiye on the Nordic countries' NATO membership, Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Tobias Billstrom said on Wednesday,
"We had a very good conversation yesterday between Sweden, Finland, and Türkiye and I felt after this meeting that there is progress. We are moving forward," Billstrom told reporters as he arrived for the second day of a NATO foreign ministers meeting in the Romanian capital Bucharest.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Tuesday also made a statement on social media regarding the tripartite meeting, saying that Türkiye conveyed its expectations within the framework of the memorandum of understanding signed during the NATO summit held in Madrid in June.
"At the Türkiye-Sweden-Finland Trilateral Foreign Ministers Meeting, we evaluated the steps taken within the framework of the Tripartite Memorandum and emphasized our expectations," he said, referring to the pact signed this June under which the Nordic countries work to address Türkiye's security concerns.
Meanwhile, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that they will start the implementation of the new terror law, which will come into effect at the beginning of the year before summer.
"The implementation of the terror law, which will be introduced at the beginning of this year and prevents participation in terrorist organizations, will begin before summer. Sweden continues to comply with the agreement with Türkiye," Kristersson said.
Sweden and Finland formally applied to join NATO in May, abandoning decades of military nonalignment, a decision spurred by Russia's war against Ukraine.
But Türkiye, a powerful NATO member for over 70 years, voiced objections to their membership bids, due to the two Nordic countries tolerating and even supporting terrorist groups.
Türkiye and the two NATO hopefuls signed a memorandum in June at the NATO summit in Madrid to address Ankara's legitimate security concerns, paving the way for the NATO membership of Finland and Sweden.
Finland and Sweden extend their full support to Türkiye countering threats to its national security, according to the memorandum. To that effect, Helsinki and Stockholm are not to provide support to the PKK terrorist group, its Syrian branch, the YPG, and the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), the group behind the defeated 2016 coup in Türkiye.
In its more than 40-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union, which includes Sweden and Finland – has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG is its Syrian offshoot.