Turkey has told allies it’s a ‘no’ to Sweden and Finland’s NATO bid – Erdogan

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ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey has told allies that it’ll reject Sweden and Finland’s membership to NATO, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan stated in a video posted on his Twitter account on Thursday.

Finland and Sweden formally utilized on Wednesday to be a part of U.S.-led NATO, a choice spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Turkey’s objections have come as a shock to the opposite members of the alliance.

“We will proceed our coverage in a decided method. We have told allies that we’ll say no to Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership,” Erdogan stated in an interview with college students? late on Wednesday.

The Turkish president stated Sweden and Finland harbour and finance “terrorists” and provide them with weapons, repeating Ankara’s accusation that the international locations helps teams that it deems terrorists, particularly the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group and Syrian Kurdish YPG, which it additionally views as a terrorist group carefully tied to the PKK.

“NATO is a safety alliance and we can’t settle for terrorists to be in it,” Erdogan additionally stated.

(Reporting by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)



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