Turkey‘s expectations were not met by documents from Sweden, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said, adding that any negotiations on the northern European countries’ bid to join NATO would have to address Turkey‘s demands first.
Sweden and Finland applied to join the alliance last month, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Their applications have faced unexpected opposition from Turkey, which has been angered by what it deems is Swedish support of Kurdish militants and by a previous decision to withdraw arms export licenses to Turkey.
At the same time, a NATO summit in Madrid later this month is expected to agree an assistance package for Ukraine that will help the country with the move from old Soviet-era weaponry to NATO standard gear.
This is what NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said late on Wednesday.
“It is very much about enabling the Ukrainians to transition from Soviet-era, from old equipment to more modern NATO standard equipment,” he told reporters ahead of a meeting of the alliance’s defence ministers in Brussels.
(Reuters)