Turkey has called on Sweden and Finland to do more to settle a dispute over the Nordic pair’s bid to join Nato and said expansion of the military alliance was vital to stability in its own neighbourhood.
Hulusi Akar, a former four-star general who once led the Turkish armed forces and is now the country’s defence minister, defended Turkey’s role in Nato against criticism that its objections to the Nordic countries’ joint application and its friendly ties with Russia were harming the alliance.
“A Nato without Turkey is unthinkable,” Akar, who meets British defence secretary Ben Wallace in the UK on Monday, said in an interview with the Financial Times. “We are a tested nation, a tried army that would never act contrary to our alliances. There is no cause for concern.”