Turkey's president confirms he is blocking Finland and Sweden from joining NATO after hinting he wants concessions first

• Turkey's leader said he told allies he would block Finland's and Sweden's bids for NATO membership.
• The two countries can't join unless all NATO members, including Turkey, agree to it.

Turkey's president said he would block Sweden's and Finland's bids to become NATO members, complicating a major shift in European geopolitics prompted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

On Twitter Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan shared a video of an interview he did on Wednesday.

According to a translation by Reuters, he said: "We will continue our policy in a determined way. We have told allies that we will say no to Finland and Sweden's NATO membership."

Erdoğan had previously suggested that he would block the bids of the two countries to join NATO. As a NATO member, Turkey has the power to veto any new countries seeking to join.

Insider's John Haltiwanger previously reported that Erdoğan hinted he wanted concessions before he would allow Sweden and Finland to join.

Turkey wants Finland and Sweden to extradite people suspected of being Kurdish militants, and it wants other NATO members to end limits on weapons sales, which Turkey objects to.

Sweden and Finland formally applied to join NATO this week. It could take weeks or months for them to become members.