Washington has not offered Turkey any concessions to convince it to accept the agreement to lift its veto on Finland and Sweden’s accession to OTAN, a senior US government official said yesterday.
The official said that US President Joe Biden made a deliberate choice to prevent the country from being part of the negotiations and in a position to give Turkey incentives.
Turkey has never asked for anything from states as part of the negotiations, he noted.
But he recalled that the Americans played a crucial role in helping to bring the two parties closer.
Joe Biden spoke with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, this morning at the request of Sweden and Finland to help unblock the negotiations.
Swedish and Finnish leaders contacted the US head of state shortly before accepting the deal.
OTAN’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced today that Turkey lifted its veto on Finland and Sweden joining the Atlantic Alliance, following the signing of a memorandum that “responds to the concerns” of Ankara.
“We have now finished a very constructive meeting with [Turkey’s Recep Tayyip] President Erdogan, [Finland’s] President Sauli] Niinisto, and [Swedish] Prime Minister Magdalena] Andersson, and I am pleased to announce that we have arrived to an agreement that paves the way for Sweden and Finland to join NATO”, announced Stoltenberg.
The secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (OTAN) was speaking at a press conference at the Parque de Expositions in Madrid, in the northeast of the Spanish capital, where the summit of the leaders of the Atlantic Alliance is taking place.
