NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Sunday that Turkey has “legitimate concerns” over terrorism and other issues that need to be taken seriously.
Turkey has accused Finland and Sweden of supporting Kurdish militants and says it will not back the two Nordic nations joining NATO until they change their policies.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Stoltenberg stressed that no other NATO ally has suffered more terrorist attacks than Turkey” and pointed to its strategic geographic location with neighbors like Iraq and Syria.
After decades of military non-alignment, Russia’s war in Ukraine pushed Finland and Sweden to apply to join NATO in May.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, however, accuses the Nordic nations of supporting Kurdish militants deemed by Turkey to be terrorists and has vetoed their entry into the 30-member alliance.
The demands from Ankara to Helsinki and Stockholm also include lifting restrictions on arms exports to Turkey and extraditing members of certain Kurdish organizations that are opposed to Erdogan’s government.
In the past weeks, NATO’s chief has been trying to resolve the dispute but he did not disclose Sunday whether any progress has been made.
He was to attend an annual discussion panel in Kultaranta later Sunday together with Finnish and Nordic politicians, foreign and security policy experts and military representatives.
Stoltenberg will visit Sweden on Monday for talks with the Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.
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