Turkey has rejected invitations by Nato to participate in trilateral talks with Finland and Sweden aimed at finding a solution to Ankara’s opposition to the Nordic countries’ applications to join the western military alliance.
Ankara has demanded concrete proposals from Helsinki and Stockholm to address its concerns over terrorism before agreeing to mediated talks, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions, forcing Nato officials to attempt to broker a deal through bilateral talks with each country.
Prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland applied to join Nato last month, with alliance leaders stating that they expected their bids to pass the first stage of approval within a couple of weeks.