Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. File photoANKARA, Jun 3Turkey's fears about the membership of Sweden and Finland are based on fair and legal grounds, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during a telephone conversation.Finland and Sweden amid events on On May 18, Ukraine was handed over to the NATO Secretary General an application for joining the alliance. Turkey has blocked the start of the process of consideration of these applications. Erdogan said that Ankara cannot say yes to the membership of Finland and Sweden in NATO, because it cannot believe their assurances about relations with representatives of the Kurdistan Workers' Party banned in Turkey. «President Tayyip Erdogan had a telephone conversation with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. During the talks «The request of Sweden and Finland to join NATO was discussed. President Erdogan said that Turkey's concerns regarding the requests of Sweden and Finland are based on fair and legal grounds,» the Turkish leader's office said. Russia has repeatedly noted that NATO is aimed at confrontation. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov stated that further expansion of the alliance would not bring greater security to Europe, NATO has an aggressive character. At the same time, he noted that he did not consider the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO an existential threat to Russia. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that abandoning Finland's traditional policy of military neutrality would be a mistake, since there are no threats to its security. In Ukraine, the EU and NATO were offered a «good idea»
