Senior officials from Sweden and Finland have met with Turkish counterparts in Ankara in an effort to overcome Turkey’s objections to the Nordic nations’ bids to join NATO.

Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to join NATO last week. The move represents one of the biggest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s war in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s security map.

Turkey has said it opposes the countries’ membership in the Western military alliance, citing grievances with Sweden’s – and to a lesser extent, Finland’s – perceived support of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and other entities that Turkey views as security threats.

The PKK, which is listed as a “terror organisation” by several of Turkey’s allies, has waged a decades-long fight against Turkey, a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people.

The Turkish government also accuses Finland and Sweden of imposing arms export restrictions on Turkey and refusing to extradite suspected “terrorists”.

Turkey’s objections have dampened Stockholm’s and Helsinki’s hopes for joining NATO quickly amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and put the trans-Atlantic alliance’s credibility at stake. All 30 NATO members must agree on admitting new members.

Ankara talks

The Swedish and Finnish delegations on Wednesday met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, and Turkish deputy foreign minister Sedat Onal.

The Swedish delegation was led by state secretary Oscar Stenstrom, while Jukka Salovaara, the foreign ministry undersecretary, headed up the Finnish delegation, Turkish officials have said.

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it said was “termination of political support for terrorism”, an “elimination of the source of terrorism financing”, and the “cessation of arms support” to the banned PKK and a Syrian Kurdish armed group affiliated with it.

The demands also called for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and global cooperation against terrorism.

Turkey said that it has requested the extradition of Kurdish fighters and other suspects since 2017 but has not received a positive response from Stockholm.

The Turkish government claimed Sweden had decided to provide $376m to support the Kurdish fighters in 2023 and that it had provided them with military equipment, including anti-tank weapons and drones.

‘Humanitarian donor’

Sweden has denied providing any “financial assistance or military support” to Kurdish groups or entities in Syria.

“Sweden is a major humanitarian donor to the Syria crisis through global allocations to humanitarian actors,” foreign minister Ann Linde told the Aftonbladet newspaper.

“Cooperation in northeastern Syria is carried out primarily through the United Nations and international organisations,” she said. “Sweden doesn’t provide targeted support to Syrian Kurds or to the political or military structures in northeastern Syria, but the population in these areas is, of course, taking part in these aid projects.”

Speaking on Tuesday before a meeting of the Council of the Baltic Sea States, German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said Russia had left Sweden and Finland “no choice” but to join NATO.

She said Germany would support the two countries’ membership, calling it “a real gain” for the military alliance.