Stoltenberg hopes to complete accession of NATO by July

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Turkey, Finland and Sweden will hold a meeting in March to discuss the accession of the two Scandinavian countries to NATO.

Jens Stoltenberg spoke at a joint press conference in Tallinn, Estonia, with Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and European Commission President von der Leyen.

Stoltenberg said he had "good talks with President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan" during his visit to Ankara last week.

"We agreed to resume negotiations under my auspices at the NATO headquarters in mid-March and to hold a trilateral meeting between Finland, Sweden and Turkey," the secretary general said.

Stoltenberg earlier told Reuters he and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had agreed that Turkey, Finland and Sweden would meet at NATO headquarters mid-March "to address the challenges we face when it comes to Turkish ratification of the Swedish accession protocol".

At this meeting, the parties will discuss "how to complete the accession process of both countries."

He said he saw progress in stalled talks aimed to have both Sweden and Finland join the alliance by the time of NATO’s July summit.

Sweden and Finland applied last year to join the trans-Atlantic alliance after Russia invaded Ukraine, but Sweden faced unexpected objections from Turkey.

Talks between Finland, Sweden and Turkey have been stalled since January after a copy of the Koran was burned outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm by Rasmus Paludan, leader of the Danish far-right political party Hard Line.

Turkey and Hungary are the only NATO allies that have not yet ratified the membership of Finland and Sweden, though Budapest has said it aims to take that step for both countries in early March.