(MENAFN- Trend News Agency)
If Sweden and Finland will be NATO members, they need to first
take Turkiye's concerns into consideration, President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said Tuesday, Trend reports citing Daily Sabah .
Addressing reporters in the capital Ankara ahead of his trip to
the critical NATO Madrid summit where he will meet the leaders of
the Nordic nations and NATO, Erdogan said that Turkiye does not
want empty words, but rather concrete results from these
countries.
'NATO membership comes with responsibilities. If Sweden and
Finland are to become members of NATO, they have to take into
account the security concerns of Turkiye, a member of the alliance
for 70 years,' he said.
'We will hold a quadripartite meeting (on Sweden and Finland's
membership bids) and see what point they have reached. We do not
want dry words, we want results. We are sick of passing the ball
around in the mid-field. As of now, they are producing words,'
Erdogan said.
He added that Ankara expects Stockholm and Helsinki to prevent
the terrorist PKK and all other offshoots from operating freely in
their countries.
Erdogan also stated that he spoke to United States President Joe
Biden earlier in the day and added that Biden wants to meet with
him on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Madrid.
'We spoke with Mr. Biden this morning and he expressed his
desire to get together tonight or tomorrow. We said it was
possible,' he told reporters.
Later in the day, the White House confirmed the planned meeting
and added that leaders at the Madrid summit will also take
'historic decisions to strengthen the alliance's collective defense
and security.'
Erdogan reiterated Ankara's criticism of NATO allies,
particularly the U.S., for their support of the PKK terrorist
group's Syrian branch YPG.
'We expect from our allies not to discriminate between NATO
members, and that threat against one should be interpreted as a
threat against all,' the president said adding that he would
explain Turkiye's position to allies at the summit and in bilateral
meetings.
Erdogan signaled over the weekend that no progress had been made
in Sweden's bid to join NATO, urging Stockholm to take 'concrete
actions' to meet Ankara's concerns.
He also said Monday after the Cabinet meeting that Turkiye 'will
provide documents and images demonstrating our interlocutors'
hypocrisy' toward groups Ankara views as terrorists.
Erdoğan also said he will do“whatever is necessary for our
country's rights and interests” at the NATO summit in Spain.
“We will tell them clearly that it is not possible to expect a
different attitude from Turkey unless this picture changes,” he
added.
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