The talks, involving officials from the three countries, will come after a marked shift in tone by Sweden, which has begun deportations of two people wanted by Turkey and whose prime minister criticized a potential coalition partner for supporting Kurdish militants . A Kurd due to be deported from Sweden to Turkey, Znar Bozkurt, who is not considered to be on the list drawn up by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is on hunger strike in protest. His situation has sparked protests in the Scandinavian country, which has a significant Kurdish population. NATO has welcomed applications by Finland and Sweden to join the transatlantic alliance and abandon decades of neutrality in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as a move to boost its defenses and protect the rest of Europe. All 30 NATO members must ratify the applications, but Turkey has threatened not to approve unless Stockholm agrees to extradite 73 people. Twenty-three of NATO’s 30 members have already ratified the membership of Sweden and Finland. Alliance officials cautioned against hoping for any progress from Friday’s talks, but said the meeting signaled positive momentum behind the countries’ ratification efforts and that all three capitals committed to constructive dialogue. Magdalena Andersson, Sweden’s campaigning centre-left prime minister, said on Tuesday she did not want the former Communist Left party in a coalition after the September 11 vote because some of its politicians were photographed flying the Labor flag. Kurdistan Party (PKK), a banned organization in the EU. NATO brokered a deal in June to end Turkey’s veto, but Erdogan suggested Ankara would refuse ratification unless Sweden extradited 73 people, a number that does not appear in the deal. Instead, the agreement simply said that Stockholm and Helsinki would deal with “pending requests to deport or extradite terrorism suspects from Turkey promptly and thoroughly.” NATO officials will not be present at Friday’s talks. “The big question is whether Turkey will take a literal approach to these demands that they put in writing. . . or if they are going to focus on the general change of approach that has taken place on the Swedish side,” said Svante Cornell, director of the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy. Swedish courts recently approved the extradition of two people wanted in Turkey in recent weeks, including Bozkurt and a man convicted of credit card fraud.

Abdullah Deveci, Bozkurt’s lawyer, told the Financial Times that his client went on hunger strike after being accused of being a terrorist. He added that Bozkurt was just a Kurdish activist. “It is not only the Kurdish opposition activists who are being sacrificed [for Erdoğan]even Swedish democracy, freedom of expression and the principles of the rule of law are being sacrificed.” Turkey’s justice minister, Bekir Bozdağ, responded with fury. “If they think that by extraditing ordinary criminals to Turkey they will make us believe that they have fulfilled their promises, they are wrong,” he said last week. Senior Finnish officials reacted cautiously to the meeting. “Finland will abide by what has been agreed together with Sweden and Turkey. Time will tell when Turkey is ready to move forward with its own ratification,” President Sauli Niinistö told Finnish ambassadors in Helsinki.