ANKARA, May 25. /TASS/. Negotiations between Turkish officials and delegations from Sweden and Finland on the two Nordic countries’ accession to NATO started at the presidential palace in Ankara on Wednesday, the Cumhuriyet newspaper reported.

At the talks, Turkey is represented by Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin and Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal, the newspaper said.

On May 18, the Finnish and Swedish ambassadors to NATO, Klaus Korhonen and Axel Vernhoff, handed in their countries’ applications for NATO membership to the alliance’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Speaking at a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Moscow on May 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would retaliate against the expansion of NATO’s military infrastructure to Finland and Sweden. At the same time the Russian leader remarked that NATO’s admission of Finland and Sweden would not pose a direct threat to Russia, since Moscow had no problems with those countries.

Last Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara would not support NATO membership for Sweden and Finland unless the two review their stance on terrorist organizations, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) designated as such in Turkey. The Turkish leader made a similar statement on May 16, when he said he was opposed to the accession over Finland and Sweden’s refusal to extradite people suspected of involvement in activities for the PKK to Turkey. However, Erdogan said on Saturday Turkey would support Stockholm and Helsinki joining NATO if the two clearly demonstrated their solidarity with Ankara over its security concerns.