Finland must lift arms embargo on Turkey in order to join NATO, according to Turkish foreign minister
“The Finnish defense minister’s visit to Turkey is important because we have not yet heard a statement from Finland saying they’ve lifted their arms embargo against us,” Cavusoglu told reporters. “We’re expecting such a statement from there.”
Mevlut Cavusoglu made the comments ahead of visit by Finland’s Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen, who will be discussing his nation’s bid to join the military alliance with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar on Thursday.
Sweden and Finland abandoned their longstanding policies of military nonalignment and applied for membership in the alliance after Russian forces started the special military operation in Ukraine in February.
But NATO-member Turkey has been holding up Sweden and Finland’s bids to join the military alliance, accusing the two Nordic countries of ignoring threats to Turkey from Kurdish militants and other groups it considers as terrorists and pressing them to crackdown on these groups.
Ankara has also been pressuring the two countries to lift a de-facto ban on weapons sales to Turkey.
Sweden announced in September that it was removing an arms.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on NATO allies to end arms embargoes on his country after a summit meeting of bloc leaders, pointing to Ukraine’s successful use of Turkish-made drones in its war with Russia.
Ankara has complained for years about western partners including the U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany and France refusing to provide missile-defense systems as well as critical equipment such as engines for tanks, warplanes, drones and helicopters developed by Turkish companies.
