OREANDA-NEWS Finnish President Sauli Niinistö claimed that Turkey's accusations of protecting terrorists by Finland and Sweden are false.

"Finnish legislation corresponds to NATO legislation on terrorism. You cannot demand a different position from Finland than from other NATO countries", Niinistö said at a briefing before the NATO summit. There is more mutual understanding between Helsinki and Ankara, and the discussions between the parties are going better, Niinistö added. At the same time, he noted that he is neither optimistic nor pessimistic when it comes to the results of the ongoing negotiations on Finland's membership in NATO, which is opposed by the Turkish side.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that for Finland and Sweden to join NATO, it is necessary to take into account Turkey's security concerns. "We do not expect idle talk, we expect concrete results", he said. Erdogan promised to clarify Turkey's position at the NATO summit in Madrid.

European leaders support the idea of joining Finland and Sweden to NATO. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez claimed that Sweden and Finland would join NATO sooner or later. The Polish government has formally agreed to let Finland and Sweden joinin the North Atlantic Alliance, spokesman for the government of the republic Piotr Muller told reporters. President of the Slovak Republic Zuzana Chaputova was recommended to sign the corresponding protocol to the North Atlantic Treaty at the alliance's summit in Madrid.

Finland and Sweden applied for joining NATO on May 18. However, Turkey's veto blocked this process. The Turkish authorities expressed their readiness to agree on the admission of Sweden and Finland to NATO if these countries fulfill ten conditions. One of them is the refusal to support the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which is considered terrorist in Turkey.