Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan officially welcomed his Finnish colleague Sauli Niinisto on Friday at the presidential compound in Ankara.
The leaders will meet one-on-one before holding a joint news conference.
Erdogan and Niinisto will address all aspects of Turkish-Finnish ties, as well as prospective initiatives to strengthen bilateral collaboration, according to a Turkish presidency statement.
The two will also discuss “Finland’s NATO membership application in accordance with the Trilateral Agreement inked on the margins of the NATO Madrid Summit, Turkey-EU relations, and current regional and global concerns,” according to the statement.
Last May, Finland and Sweden formally applied to join NATO, breaking decades of military non-alignment.
Yet, Turkey, a long-standing NATO member, has encouraged the two Nordic nations to take meaningful action against terror groups such as the PKK and FETO, which operate in these countries through propaganda, fundraising, and recruitment.
Finland and Sweden signed a memorandum with Turkey in June to address Ankara’s security concerns, and senior diplomats and officials from the three countries have met several times since then to discuss how the trilateral agreement will be implemented.