BRUSSELS, July 5 (KUNA) -- NATO Ambassadors signed the Accession Protocols for Finland and Sweden at NATO Headquarters in Brussels Tuesday in the presence of Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto and Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the press conference after the signing ceremony that "this is truly an historic moment. For Finland, for Sweden, for NATO, and for our shared security." He thanked Turkiye, Finland, and Sweden for their "constructive approach "noting that the agreement they signed at the Madrid Summit last week made today's Accession Protocols possible.
Stoltenberg said the Accession Protocols have now to be ratified by all the 30 parliaments of NATO member states , and added that he could not predict how fast it will go.
Sweden and Finland gave up their neutrality due to Russia's military invasion of Ukraine and applied to join NATO in May.
However, NATO member Turkiye raised objections to the membership bids of the two European countries, criticizing them for tolerating and even supporting terrorist groups. Just before the Madrid summit, Turkiye, Finland, and Sweden signed a joint memorandum after talks facilitated by NATO in the Spanish capital.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last Thursday told reporters at the side lines of the Madrid summit said that in accordance with the joint memorandum he signed with Sweden and Finland "73 Kurdish terrorists will be extradited" to Turkey.
Finnish foreign minister Haavisto told today's press conference that the memorandum signed with Turkey has taken into consideration all the concerns expressed by Tukriye including terrorism, the Kurdish PKK and all the necessary steps to be taken are mentioned in the memorandum.
"Everything that was agreed in Madrid is stated in the document. There are no hidden documents. There has not been any additional request for extradition," he stressed.
On her part, Swedish foreign minister Linde told the same press conference that "we will honour the memorandum fully , and there is no list or anything like that in the memorandum. But what we will do is to have a better cooperation when it comes to terrorists and get better information." "In the memorandum we assured Turkiye that we will take the fight against terrorism seriously and all the request for extradition will go the normal way in our legislation and it is finally the High Court to take decisions," she said.
"To my knowledge we haven't got a specific list to the government. But of course all the authorities that work with extraditions and expulsions issues they get continuously different kind of proposals for extradition," added the Swedish foreign minister.
Stoltenberg stressed that NATO's door remains open to European democracies who are ready and willing to contribute to our shared security. "With 32 nations around the table, we will be even stronger and our people will be even safer, as we face the biggest security crisis in decades," headed. (end) nk