New NATO talks with Turkey to resume in mid-March: Swedish PM

Stockholm, Feb 23 (IANS) Talks between Sweden, Finland and Turkey would resume in mid-March, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told local media."We have just confirmed this today," Kristersson told Swedish public television broadcaster SVT on Wednesday, without specifying the date for such talks.Turkey has postponed a trilateral meeting with Sweden and Finland on their NATO bids slated for February following the burning of a copy of the Quran in Stockholm, Xinhua news agency reported.Despite the US attempts to push for both countries' rapid accession into NATO, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Monday reaffirmed Ankara's demand for more efforts from Sweden over its security concerns.Ankara's stance on Finland's accession could be different and its membership could be ratified earlier, he said.Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO in May 2022 in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Their accession needs the approval of all member states of the military alliance.Turkey and Hungary, both members of NATO, have yet to give their approvals. Turkey requests that the two Nordic countries to "speedily and thoroughly" extradite individuals it considers to be terrorist suspects.
--IANS int/khz/

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