Finland and Sweden reiterated on Friday that they will cooperate with Türkiye in the fight against terrorism during the first trilateral meeting between the parties since a deal was signed on the sidelines of the NATO Madrid summit.
According to a statement from Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalın's office, Finland and Sweden reiterated their commitment to show full solidarity and cooperation with Türkiye in the fight against all forms and manifestations of terrorism, pledging to fully support Türkiye against all threats to its national security, especially the PKK terrorist organization, its Syrian PYD/YPG offshoots and the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).
The three sides came together in Helsinki where Türkiye was represented by Presidential Spokesperson Kalın and Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal, accompanied by representatives from Türkiye's intelligence agency and the Defense and Interior Ministries.
“It was agreed to intensify cooperation at the technical level among the relevant institutions in order to achieve concrete progress on the issues addressed within the scope of the mechanism,” the statement added.
During the meeting, the fundamentals of the permanent joint mechanism were determined while developments on the realization of the commitments in the trilateral deal were reviewed as well as concrete steps to be taken in the future.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted Sweden and Finland to abandon their long-held nonaligned status and apply to join NATO as protection against an increasingly aggressive and unpredictable Russia – which shares a long border with Finland. Under NATO treaties, an attack on any member would be considered an attack against all and trigger a military response by the entire alliance.
Türkiye agreed in June to lift its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, ending an impasse that had clouded a leaders’ summit opening in Madrid amid Europe’s worst security crisis in decades, triggered by the war in Ukraine.
In a trilateral deal with Sweden and Finland, Türkiye has demanded that the two countries extradite wanted individuals and lift arms restrictions imposed after Ankara’s 2019 military operation into northeast Syria.
