Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto said that Turkey has agreed to support Finland and Sweden’s joint membership of NATO, on the first day of the alliance’s summit in the Spanish capital, Madrid.
Niinisto said the breakthrough on Tuesday came after the three countries signed a joint memorandum “to extend their full support against threats to each other’s security”.
Ahead of the NATO summit, the leaders of Finland and Sweden had met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a bid to have him drop objections to them joining the military alliance.
The Nordic leaders voiced optimism earlier on Tuesday that the Turkish president might lift his veto on their bid to join the alliance.
After landing in Madrid, Erdogan held more than two hours of talks with Finnish President Niinisto, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
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