"It is important that Turkey, Sweden and Finland are in NATO."

APA reports that Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said this in an interview with nra.lv.

Answering the journalist's question about the possibility of joining NATO and two other countries - Sweden and Finland - without Turkey, the Latvian minister said that such speculations are not true.

"I would say it is not right to dramatize the situation.

There are issues that are important for Turkey.

These countries restrict both arms control and trade with Turkey.

There are also issues related to terrorist organizations, which are important for Turkey's security, and discussions are underway on which specific organizations to accept such (terrorist organization).

I hope that a solution will be found that takes into account Turkey's legitimate security interests, as well as the important contribution of Finland and Sweden's membership in the Alliance, not only to the Baltic region, but to NATO as a whole.

"Given the potential of these countries and our direct defense and security interests, the participation of three countries - Turkey, Sweden and Finland - in NATO is important for Latvia's security interests," Latvian Foreign Minister Rinkevics said.