Türkiye, Sweden, Finland to meet on Aug. 26 under joint mechanism

With Sweden and Finland agreeing to cooperate on Türkiye's fight against terrorism, three countries are set to meet on Aug. 26 at the permanent joint mechanism under the trilateral memorandum signed at NATO Madrid summit in June, the Turkish foreign minister announced on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters on the final day of the 13th Ambassadors Conference in Ankara, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Sweden and Finland are yet to deliver their commitments arising from the memorandum and that they are yet to take any solid step on Türkiye's requests on extradition of terrorists.

On normalization process with Armenia and ties with Azerbaijan, Çavuşoğlu said Türkiye is doing everything in this process very openly and transparently.

He called on Armenia to end "stalling tactics," and urged sincerity from Yerevan.

He also commented on EU relations and his country's bid to join the bloc, saying the EU would have been a global actor had it accepted Türkiye's accession bid to the bloc and taken Türkiye's recent steps together.

Regarding relations with Greece, Çavuşoğlu reminded Turkish National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar's remarks as well on the need have confidence building steps.

Saying that neither the Greek defense minister nor other relevant parties have yet visited Türkiye for years, Çavuşoğlu said the exploratory talks were due to happen for some time and that Türkiye is showing willingness but not Greece.

He said the problems between the two neighboring countries need to be addressed from a "very comprehensive" point.

Responding to a question on possible operation to northern Syria to eliminate terrorists, Çavuşoğlu reminded that Türkiye's counter-terrorism operations abroad are solely to eliminate the area from terrorists.

At the non-aligned movement meeting in October in Serbia's capital Belgrade, the top Turkish diplomat said he had a brief chat with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad while also talking with other ministers at the meeting.

"We need to somehow come to terms with the opposition and the regime in Syria. Otherwise, there will be no lasting peace," he stressed.

Çavuşoğlu also noted that there must be strong administration in Syria to prevent any division of the country, and added that "the will that can dominate every corner of its lands can only be achieved through unity and solidarity."