Turkey has vetoed Sweden and Finland joining NATO. The three countries have signed a joint memorandum in Madrid. The signing took place in the presence of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and the Swedish Prime Minister at the end of a meeting that lasted almost four hours.
Turkey "got what it wanted" from talks with Sweden and Finland on their NATO membership: it got the "full co-operation" of Helsinki and Stockholm against the PKK and its allies.
Finnish President Niinisto said the decision came after the three countries signed a joint memorandum "to expand their full support against each other's security threats", following a meeting at the NATO summit in Madrid.
Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership after Russia invaded Ukraine. On May 13, Turkey opposed the membership of the two Scandinavian countries, arguing that they were harboring members of Kurdish terrorist groups.