Turkey to lift veto on Finland, Sweden if they fulfill commitments: Erdogan

Madrid, Jun 20 (EFE).- Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that he would wait for Sweden and Finland to fulfill their commitments to Ankara before lifting a veto on the Nordic countries’ accession to Nato.

“This is the beginning, we will closely follow the implementation of the promises made in the memorandum and take measures accordingly,” Erdogan said at a press conference at the end of a Nato summit in Madrid.

The Turkish president was referring to an agreement signed this week by Finland, Sweden and Turkey in which the Nordic countries agree to address Ankara’s concerns, including on weapons sales and the fight against terrorism.

Turkey has accused Stockholm and Helsinki of supporting Kurdish organizations that it regards as terrorists.

In the agreement, the Nordic governments promised “energetic” measures against the PKK, the Kurdish armed group that has battled a succession of Turkish governments for decades, and to conclude extradition agreements with Turkey.

Erdogan said that Sweden had committed to extradite 73 terror suspects to Turkey.

“That is the promise and they will keep it,” he said. EFE

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