Erdogan: Turkey still doesn’t want Sweden, Finland to join NATO

Ankara still does not support Sweden and Finland’s accession to NATO, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara after talks with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

"Swedish television aired interviews with leaders of terrorist groups. We cannot say ‘welcome to NATO’ after this. The same applies to Finland," the Turkish president noted.

He reiterated that "NATO is an organization to ensure security, it is not an organization to support terrorism".

Maduro, for his part, thanked Turkey for its assistance during the coronavirus pandemic and invited Turkish companies to do business in Venezuela. "I believe time has come for investors from Turkey in Venezuela," he stressed, inviting them to "invest in tourism, ore mining, logistics, the banking sector, the production of oil and gas, as well as ore mining".