Finland’s president in Turkey for talks on NATO bid

By ANDREW WILKS
Associated Press

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is meeting his Finnish counterpart in Ankara amid hopes that Turkey approves Finland’s NATO membership bid. President Sauli Niinisto and Erdogan reviewed a military honor guard as rain lashed the presidential palace in the Turkish capital’s Bestepe district on Friday. Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership in May last year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The expansion of the 30-nation bloc has been held up by Turkey and Hungary, the only two countries not to have yet ratified the Nordic states’ bids.