Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that his country is “not favorable” toward Finland and Sweden joining NATO, indicating Turkey could use its membership in the Western military alliance to veto moves to admit the two countries.
“We are following developments concerning Sweden and Finland, but we are not of a favorable opinion,” Erdogan told reporters.
The Turkish leader justified his rejection by noting Sweden’s and other Scandinavian nations’ alleged backing for Kurdish militants and other terrorists, whom Turkey considers.
He said he also did not want to repeat Turkey’s past “mistake” from when it agreed to readmit Greece into NATO’s military wing in 1980. He claimed the action had allowed Greece “to take an attitude against Turkey” with NATO’s backing.
Erdogan did not state explicitly that he would obstruct the two Nordic countries’ bids for membership. NATO, on the other hand, makes all of its decisions by consensus, which means that each of the 30 member nations has a veto over who joins.
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