At the time of writing on Tuesday 28 June, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg were continuing their discussion to try to resolve differences between the two candidate countries and Turkey.
A few hours before the meeting, Mr Stoltenberg could “not promise anything”, but hoped that there might be some progress.
On Monday 27 June, Ms Andersson expressed her “strong hope that the dialogue can be successfully concluded in the very near future, ideally at the summit”. “This would make it possible, and this is essential, to launch the accession processes of Sweden and Finland immediately”, she added.
In Brussels on Monday, representatives of the three countries and NATO met to try to make progress on Turkey’s security concerns, including on arms exports and the fight against terrorism. This was the second meeting in a week.
In a meeting with Ms Andersson, Mr Stoltenberg highlighted Sweden’s efforts to amend the Terrorist Offences Act, which will enter into force on 1 July, with a broader scope and higher penalty scales, and to work on constitutional amendments to pave the way for criminalising participation in terrorist organisations. Stockholm has also launched new police investigations against the PKK - recognised as a terrorist organisation by the EU - and is considering extradition requests from Turkey.
The fight against terrorism will be the subject of a special session at the summit devoted to NATO’s efforts in this area. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant and Léa Marchal)