Finland will hold a meeting with representatives of Sweden and Turkey in August to discuss a memorandum signed by the three countries to allow the two Scandinavian nations to join NATO, despite initial opposition from Ankara, Finland’s foreign minister said on Friday, AFP reported. according to the materials of Agerpres.

“Representatives of Finland, Sweden and Turkey will meet in Finland in August,” Pekka Haavisto told the press.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu previously announced that the tripartite meeting could take place on August 26, without specifying the location.

Finland and Sweden abandoned their traditional policy of neutrality when they applied to join NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

Their accession has already been ratified by the USA and more than half of the 30 NATO member states. Only Turkey opposed their candidacy, demanding concessions from Finland and Sweden.

The meeting will continue discussions based on the memorandum the three countries signed in Madrid in June, Haavisto said.

The signing of this memorandum made it possible to remove Ankara’s veto on the two countries joining NATO.

The text confirms that Stockholm and Helsinki consider the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) a terrorist organization and that both capitals pledge not to support various groups that Ankara considers terrorist, including the Kurdish YPG armed movement in Syria.

In the text, Sweden and Finland agreed to consider Ankara’s extradition requests for suspects Turkey accuses of involvement in a 2016 coup attempt and Kurdish militants.

Sweden announced the first extradition of a Turk last week, but Turkey’s justice minister said Thursday that the announcement did not fulfill promises made by Stockholm.

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