The prime ministers of NATO candidate countries Sweden and Finland are due to meet in Stockholm today, a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Helsinki can get the green light from Ankara, but not Stockholm to enter the Alliance.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin is the first head of government to be received by her Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristerson since he took office last fall.

The meeting will probably primarily discuss the stalled process of joining the two Nordic countries in NATO.

Finland and Sweden have applied for membership in May 2022, but Turkey is blocking the process.

Turkish President Erdogan said yesterday that his country views Finland's request for NATO membership positively, but does not support Sweden's candidacy.

- Our attitude towards Finland is positive, but as far as Sweden is concerned, it is not, Erdogan said regarding the two countries' attempts to join the North Atlantic Alliance.

Ankara makes its support for both countries conditional on the extradition of "terrorists", mainly Kurds. It is asking Helsinki and Stockholm to take a particularly tough stance on members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Turkey and the EU consider a terrorist organization, and a second group it blames for the 2016 coup attempt.

The three sides reached an agreement in Madrid last June on the targets, but Ankara broke off talks last month after tensions rose when a right-wing extremist burned a Koran near the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm.

- Sweden should not bother trying to get our consent at the moment. We will not give an affirmative answer to her request as long as they allow the burning of the Koran, Erdogan said.

Finland has already said several times that it would like to join NATO together with Sweden.