Romania’s Foreign Minister, Bogdan Aurescu, is today meeting his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Çavuşoglu, hoping to convince him to vote in favor of the NATO accession of Sweden and Finland. Minister Aurescu is attending the Romania-Poland-Turkey trilateral meeting in Istanbul, and has previously discussed with the Foreign Ministers of Sweden and Finland about their countries’ NATO accession process. The trilateral format was launched 10 years ago in order to consolidate regional and NATO security. According to a Foreign Ministry release, in today’s meeting Minister Aurescu is expected to highlight Romania’s firm support for NATO’s open doors policy and for a swift accession of Sweden and Finland. Turkey has accused the two countries, Sweden in particular, of harboring a large number of Kurdish militants of the breakaway PKK party, which it officially considers a terrorist organization. Hailed by the overwhelming majority of NATO states and backed by the population of the two countries, the NATO accession of Finland and Sweden was determined by security concerns sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Eugen Cojocariu, Radio Romania International
