The three-day NATO leaders summit in Madrid concluded on Thursday with Turkey, Finland and Sweden reaching a consensus on addressing Ankara’s concerns on terrorism and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan holding several high-level discussions with his counterparts.
The last day of the summit ended with a session on terrorism and North Africa. In the new Strategic Concept approved at the Madrid summit, NATO defined terrorism as the most direct threat to international security and peace.
Erdoğan met with several world leaders on the sidelines of the summit, among them German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, the Netherlands’ Prime Minister Mark Rutte, French President Emmanuel Macron, European Council President Charles Michel, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and U.S. President Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, NATO announced that the accession protocol for Sweden and Finland will be formally signed next Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the three nations signed a deal for Ankara to remove its block, while the candidates pledged not to support the PKK, its extensions or the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which staged a 2016 failed coup attempt.
The agreement addresses Ankara's three main concerns with Finland and Sweden: the lifting of weapons export restrictions to Turkey, a hard line on the PKK and its affiliates, and the extradition of terrorist suspects.
Finland and Sweden have blocked arms exports to Turkey since its 2019 military operation in Syria.
Under the deal, "Finland and Sweden confirm that now there are no national arms embargoes." Stockholm said it was "changing its national regulatory framework for arms exports in relation to NATO allies."
Both Stockholm and Helsinki also confirmed they considered the PKK a terrorist organization and agreed they would "not provide support to" its affiliates in Syria, the YPG and PYD.
"Finland and Sweden commit to preventing activities of the PKK and all other terrorist organizations and their extensions, as well as activities by individuals ... linked to these terrorist organizations," it says.
Sweden and Finland abandoned decades of military nonalignment in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and were formally invited into the alliance at Wednesday's summit in Madrid.
Turkey, a NATO member of more than 70 years standing with the alliance's second-biggest army, has long demanded that allies halt support for the YPG.
It has repeatedly traded barbs with the United States, France, Germany, the Netherlands and others over the matter.
"Our government will be working closely with our Finnish and Swedish counterparts to implement this agreement. We are satisfied with their constructive approach to addressing our concerns. We will work to ensure that NATO has more unity on terrorism," Presidental Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said late Wednesday on Twitter.
He said the four-way meeting between Erdoğan, Finland's President Sauli Niinisto, Swedish Prime Minister Magdelena Andersson and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg "achieved concrete, specific and significant results regarding our concerns over terrorism."
All parties "agreed to full cooperation against the terror organization PKK and all its extensions," Altun said, adding that "Sweden and Finland committed to stand with Turkey against all forms of terrorism and promised not to provide support to the PYD/YPG and FETÖ terrorist groups."
He also cited the agreement on Sweden and Finland's lifting "restrictions or sanctions on our defense industry and increase cooperation in this arena," and said, "they have committed to revising counterterrorism laws to address our concerns regarding terror activities cloaked under pseudo-political activities."
Turkey, Sweden and Finland have also "agreed to create an intelligence-sharing and cooperation mechanism against terrorism and organized crime," the Turkish official said.
"Sweden and Finland agreed to ban any fundraising and recruitment activities by the PKK and its extensions as well as shell organizations. They also agreed to prevent terrorism propaganda against Turkey."
He also announced plans to establish a "Permanent Shared Mechanism to oversee and verify the implementation of these steps with the participation of justice, intelligence, and security bureaucracies of our respective countries."
Altun said "Turkey has always advocated for more unity within our alliance over common security issues including terrorism. We will neither create fractures within this alliance nor give up on our national security. We have always supported a stronger NATO and will continue to do so."
Erdoğan met with his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Madrid on Wednesday.
The Turkish and U.S. presidents agreed on "continued close consultations" between Washington and Ankara during a meeting in Madrid, the White House said.
The two leaders discussed Sweden and Finland's NATO membership bids, the Ukraine war, as well as the situation in the Aegean and Syria.
"President Biden reiterated his desire to maintain constructive bilateral relations, and the leaders agreed on the importance of continued close consultations between our governments," the White House said in a statement.
The U.S. president also welcomed Ankara's conclusion of a trilateral agreement with Finland and Sweden that paved the way for NATO to invite them to join the alliance.
"The leaders discussed their continued support for Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression, as well as the importance of removing Russian obstacles to the export of Ukrainian grain," the statement said.
The two leaders also talked about the importance of maintaining stability in the Aegean and Syria.
The meeting lasted nearly one hour. In a brief interaction before the closed-door meeting, Erdoğan said steps being taken to strengthen NATO will have a "special contribution" in the context of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
"We are trying to resolve the conflict through balancing policy," Erdoğan said regarding the grain corridor during the meeting.
He expressed hope of opening corridors soon to the countries that are currently lacking grain.
Biden made a statement at the beginning of the meeting, expressing his pleasure to meet with Erdoğan.
He also thanked Erdoğan for his efforts in the transport of Ukrainian grain, and the support for Sweden and Finland's NATO bids.
"You're doing a great job. I want to thank you," Biden said.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, Communications Director Fahrettin Altun, Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin and intelligence service head Hakan Fidan also attended the meeting.
