An agreement was reached tonight, on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Madrid, on the accession of Sweden and Finland to the North Atlantic Alliance.
Essentially, Turkey has lifted its veto on the two Scandinavian countries' NATO membership, following a quadripartite meeting attended by SG. Alliance President Jens Stoltenberg, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.
The news was announced by Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, who said the progress was achieved after the three countries signed a joint memorandum of understanding in which they pledged to support each other "against threats to their security".
The Turkish Foreign Ministry announced meetings between Turkish and Swedish officials on Wednesday. The four-way summit was aimed at overcoming the Turkish president's objections to the Scandinavian countries' membership in NATO and, it seems, the pressure, especially from the US side, paid off.
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