Turkey's president renews threat to "freeze" Finland and Sweden's NATO bids

 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan again threatened on Monday to "freeze" Sweden and Finland's NATO membership process after talks with the Nordic countries and NATO members in late June conditionally approved their bid.

 

"We have shared with member states that we have conditionally ratified Sweden and Finland to begin the process of joining NATO. I would like to remind you again that if you do not take the necessary steps to live up to our terms, we will freeze the process," Elle said. Dogan said Monday after a cabinet meeting.

"We've seen Sweden not doing well in this regard," he added, without clarifying his comments.

Turkey said in late June that it had signed a trilateral memorandum with Finland and Sweden in support of their NATO membership, which must be approved by the parliaments and legislatures of all 30 member states.

The two Nordic countries made the historic decision to formally apply to join NATO after signing a memorandum covering several outstanding issues between Turkey, Finland and Sweden, ending decades of neutrality.

Ankara said Helsinki and Stockholm had agreed not to support the Kurdish People's Protection Units, also known as the YPG, which Turkey considers a terrorist group, the Turkish presidency said.

Finland and Sweden have also confirmed that the separatist radical Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Turkey, the United States and the European Union considers a terrorist organization, is a "prohibited terrorist organization" and is committed to preventing its activities, the Turkish statement said. "The PKK and". All other terrorist organizations and their extensions. "

Istanbul also said the three countries agreed not to impose a state arms embargo between them and pledged to create an information-sharing mechanism to fight terrorism and fight organized crime.

Erdogan has said Sweden has committed to extradite 73 people to Turkey under a memorandum that stipulates that Sweden and Finland will deal with Turkey's pending extradition requests for terrorist suspects under the European Convention on Extradition.