Turkey agrees to Finland and Sweden joining NATO

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) - Monitoring: The leaders of Turkey, Sweden and Finland have recently signed a memorandum of understanding between the two Nordic countries to join NATO.
 
"This is a tripartite agreement to join NATO," said an informed source.
 
"On the first day of the coalition summit in Madrid, the capital of Spain, Turkey agreed to support the joint membership of Finland and Sweden in NATO," Akathimerini was quoted as saying.
 
The progress came after the three countries signed a joint memorandum to expand their full support for each other's security threats, Ninisto said.
 
In an interview with a Swedish newspaper, Swedish Foreign Minister Anne Linde said that further progress could be made at the current NATO summit in Madrid. "We expect something positive to happen today," Linde said. "But it may take longer."
 
Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO on May 18 (Wednesday, May 28). They were expected to receive an invitation to the summit in Madrid, but Turkey blocked the accession process. Ankara calls on these countries to recognize a number of Kurdish groups as terrorist organizations and to extradite Turkish wanted individuals on terrorist charges.
 
Sweden and Finland officially announced their application for NATO membership last month; an issue that their officials put on the agenda after the Russian conflict with Ukraine, despite warnings from Moscow officials.