Türkiye says to discuss NATO bids with Swedish, Finnish FMs in Bucharest

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Monday that he would meet with his Swedish and Finnish counterparts to discuss their bid to join NATO on the margins of the alliance's meeting in Bucharest on Tuesday.

"We will come together with Swedish and Finnish foreign ministers tomorrow in Bucharest under a trilateral format," Çavuşoğlu was quoted as saying by the private NTV broadcaster.

Ankara has accused the two Nordic nations of providing a safe haven for outlawed Kurdish militants it deems "terrorists" and held back on ratifying their NATO membership despite an agreement in June.

"The process is progressing positively, but there are still steps to be taken," Çavuşoğlu said.

"In fact, Sweden is the country that needs to take more steps."

Finland and Sweden dropped decades of military non-alignment and scrambled to become NATO members in May, after Russia invaded Ukraine.

New Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson visited Ankara early this month to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as Stockholm hoped to secure Türkiye's approval.

Ahead of that trip, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, who met with Çavuşoğlu and Erdoğan in Istanbul, said both countries were committed to working with Türkiye to address its concerns, adding it is time to welcome them.

Among all NATO members, only Hungary and Türkiye are left to green-light their application.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said last week parliament would approve Finland and Sweden's accession to NATO next year.

TURKIYE-EGYPT RELATIONS

Türkiye and Egypt may restore full diplomatic ties and re-appoint ambassadors mutually "in coming months," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu also said on Monday.

Ankara and Cairo may re-start diplomatic consultations led by deputy foreign ministers as part of a normalisation process "soon," Çavuşoğlu told reporters in Ankara.

After years of tension, Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan shook hands with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in Qatar this month in what was described by the Egyptian presidency as a new start in bilateral relations.

Intelligence delegations from the two sides met in Egypt at the weekend, said a regional source with knowledge of the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The second source, a senior Turkish official, said "significant" discussions had begun between them, and Türkiye and Egypt are set to begin talks on military, political and commercial issues including energy projects.

Turkish government officials did not comment when asked about the Egypt meeting. Egypt's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoğlu separately told reporters on Monday that Ankara and Cairo may restore full diplomatic ties and re-appoint ambassadors "in coming months".

Diplomatic ties have been strained since Sisi, then Egypt's army chief, led the 2013 ouster of Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, who was strongly supported by Erdogan.

But Erdoğan and Sisi shook hands on the sidelines of the World Cup in Qatar last week in what Cairo described as a new start in bilateral relations.

Separately, an Egyptian intelligence source said delegations in Cairo had discussed how to bring their points of view on common security issues closer. Those issues included Türkiye-based media outlets associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and opposed to Egypt's government, the source said.

REGIONAL OUTREACH

Erdoğan said at the weekend that he and Sisi spoke in Qatar for as much as 45 minutes, and that the process of building relations with Egypt will start with ministers of the two countries meeting and that the talks would develop from there.

The senior Turkish official said the countries "may enter into serious cooperation on regional issues, especially in Africa".

They will begin addressing commercial, military and political issues "within a short time," he added, pointing to Türkiye's maritime agreement with Libya, energy projects, hydrocarbon exploration work and pipelines in the Mediterranean.

Ambassador appointments and contacts to bring Erdoğan and Sisi together again will come "in the near future," with Türkiye's approach mirroring its recent effort to rekindle ties with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, he added.

The two countries started consultations between senior foreign ministry officials last year amid a push by Türkiye to ease tensions with Egypt, the UAE, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

As part of this, Ankara asked Egyptian opposition TV channels operating in Türkiye to moderate their criticism of Egypt, though Egyptian officials remained cautious on reconciliation.

Cairo has moved much more quickly to restore ties with Qatar following a regional diplomatic rift.