Turkey drops veto for NATO expansion, now supporting Sweden and Finland’s bid

Turkey, Finland and Sweden have signed a memorandum that addresses Turkey’s concerns, including around arms exports and the fight against terrorism

The deal was reached by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President Sauli Niinistö of Finland and the Swedish prime minister, Magdalena Andersson during a summit in Madrid
The deal was reached by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President Sauli Niinistö of Finland and the Swedish prime minister, Magdalena Andersson during a summit in Madrid

Turkey has removed its veto for NATO’s expansion, and has now agreed to support Sweden and Finland's membership of the alliance.

The deal was reached by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President Sauli Niinistö of Finland and the Swedish prime minister, Magdalena Andersson during a summit in Madrid.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, said, “I am pleased to announce that we now have an agreement that paves the way for Finland and Sweden to join NATO.”

“Turkey, Finland and Sweden have signed a memorandum that addresses Turkey’s concerns, including around arms exports and the fight against terrorism,” he added.

Andersson rejected claims that she had conceded too much to Erdoğan in order to persuade him to drop his veto, and said that she had shown the Turkish leader changes in Sweden’s terrorism legislation set to come into force next month

“And of course, we will continue our fight against terrorism and as Nato members also do so with closer cooperation with Turkey,” the Swedish premier said.

Sweden and Finland had historically declined to seek NATO membership, partly because of mixed public opinion and caution around their security relationship with Russia. That dramatically changed after Russia launched an unprovoked attack on Ukraine in February, prompting both countries to ask to join.

Turkey had said it would block the applications of Sweden and Finland unless it received satisfactory assurances that the Nordic countries were willing to address what it regards as support for Kurdish groups it designates as terrorist organisations, in particular the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK).

Because Nato operates by consensus, it is possible for one country in the 30-strong military alliance to block an application, giving Ankara leverage when the two countries sought to join earlier this year.

“Turkey has made significant gains in the fight against terrorist organisations [...] Turkey got what it wanted,” said a statement released by Erdoğan’s office on Tuesday.

The text of the memorandum signed by all three leaders says that Finland and Sweden will “extend their full support” to Turkey in matters of national security.

The Nordic countries said they confirmed that the PKK was a proscribed organisation and, in a key concession, would “not provide support” to the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union party (PYD) and People’s Protection Units (YPG) groups that have been active in the fight against Islamic State in Syria.

Finland and Sweden affirmed in the deal there were no national arms embargoes relating to sales to Turkey and all three countries said they would work together on extradition requests.

Sweden is home to 100,000 Kurdish refugees and Turkey has called for the extradition of individuals it says are linked to the PKK or the Syrian YPG.

Stoltenberg said Finland and Sweden had agreed to a “further amending their domestic legislation” to give Turkey the anti-terror reassurances it had sought, and would be “cracking down on PKK activities” and “entering into an agreement with Turkey on extradition”.