Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Erdogan Announces Discussing Plan to Approve Finland's Accession Protocol to NATO


Fri 17 Mar 2023 | 11:32 PM
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Ahmed Moamar

On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his country has started discussing a plan to approve Finland's accession to NATO.

And the Turkish "TRT" television quoted Erdogan as saying during a press conference with his Finnish counterpart that Helsinki had taken "clear steps regarding its obligations in the tripartite memorandum related to its accession to NATO."

The Turkish president expressed his hope for obtaining "final approval" from Turkish institutions for Finland's accession to NATO before the elections, stressing that the alliance would become "stronger" with Finland's membership and would play an "active role" in maintaining security and stability.

In turn, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto considered Turkey's approval of his country's accession to NATO a "very big step."

Regarding Sweden's accession to the alliance, Erdogan said, "Our decision regarding Sweden's accession to NATO will be determined by its steps during the next stage," adding, "We presented Sweden with a list of wanted persons, and it must hand them over so that our position will be positive regarding its accession to the NATO."