Türkiye expects concrete steps from new Swedish government: FM

Türkiye expects Finland and Sweden to take concrete steps on the memorandum signed for their NATO bid Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoğlu said on Sept. 14, stressing that Sweden has already left the elections behind so that its new government can take steps in line with the Madrid deal.

"Elections were held in Sweden. The new government must take necessary steps," Çavuşoğlu told a group of reporters.

They are aware that otherwise, the Turkish parliament will not ratify their application to NATO, he added.

Recalling the first meeting of the Permanent Joint Mechanism, established within the framework of the Tripartite Memorandum signed by Türkiye, Finland and Sweden at the NATO summit in Madrid, the minister said the outcome of the discussions put forth that no concrete steps were taken by the Nordic countries regarding their promises.

Çavuşoğlu pointed to the fact that Sweden could hardly take a step to meet the memorandum before the elections, but as the polls are now left behind Ankara expects the Nordic country to move on the requirements of the deal.

He said Türkiye does not act under a time constraint, but it was up to the Nordic countries to move on the consensus in order to proceed with their NATO membership application.

The Nordic countries earlier stated that they raised the need for amendments in their laws to meet Türkiye's expectation of extradition of "terror group members," he said.

On June 28, the trio signed a trilateral memorandum at the NATO summit in Madrid which envisaged Finland and Sweden showing full solidarity and cooperation with Türkiye in the fight against terrorism, especially the PKK, YPG and FETÖ, and extradition of their members.

He stated that the diplomacy that Türkiye has been...