Turkey blocked the process of considering the application of Sweden and Finland to join the North Atlantic Alliance. This is reported by The Financial Times, citing sources..

According to the interlocutor of the publication, the permanent representatives of the NATO countries held a meeting on May 17 to immediately begin negotiations on the entry of the two countries into the Alliance.. However, "

Applications for membership of Sweden and Finland must first be considered by the NATO Council, after which the membership agreement must be ratified at the national level in all 30 countries of the alliance.

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It should be noted that despite some disputes and mutual sanctions in 2016, the presidents of Turkey and the Russian Federation maintain fairly friendly relations.. For example, negotiations between the Ukrainian delegation and the Russians, after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, among other things, took place in Turkey. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin also opposes the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO, threatening both countries in the process.

On May 16, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey would not agree to the entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO.

Sweden and Finland have long synchronized their security and defense policies. Unlike their NATO neighbors Denmark and Norway, Sweden and Finland had to rely on themselves. When it turned out that Russia is a much more dangerous neighbor than it seemed, Sweden and Finland revised their position on NATO. Read more in the article by Alina Gritsenko "