On Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Finland must publicly declare that it's lifting an arms embargo on Turkey to win Ankara’s approval for its membership in NATO.
Cavusoglu made the remarks before a visit of Finnish Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen, who will discuss his country's bid to join the military alliance with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar on Thursday.
“The Finnish defense minister’s visit to Turkey is important because we have not yet heard a statement from Finland saying they’ve lifted their arms embargo against us,” Cavusoglu told reporters. “We’re expecting such a statement from there.”
Sweden and Finland abandoned their longstanding policies of military non-alignment and applied for membership in the alliance after Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February, amid concerns that Russia might next target them.
However, Turkey, a member of NATO, has halted Sweden and Finland's efforts to join the military alliance, accusing the two northern countries of ignoring threats to Turkey from Kurdish militants and other groups it considers terrorists and pressuring them to suppress these groups.
Ankara is also pressing the two countries to lift the de facto ban on arms sales to Turkey.
Sweden announced in September that it was lifting the arms embargo it had imposed on Ankara in 2019 after the Turkish military operation against Kurdish militias in Syria.
Turkey, which accused the northern countries of ignoring threats against it from Kurdish groups and other groups it considers terrorist, did not agree to its accession.
The parliaments of Turkey and Hungary have not yet ratified their applications. The other 28 NATO member states have already done so.
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