Finnish Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen opposed Ankara's demands to lift the ban on arms exports to Turkey, saying no such embargo existed, Bloomberg reported.

Turkey is one of two countries that have not yet ratified Sweden's and Finland's applications for NATO membership. Ankara made many demands on the Scandinavian countries before agreeing to the alliance's expansion.

"There is no categorical export ban," Kaikkonen told reporters after meeting with his Turkish counterpart in Ankara. "Finland makes decisions on defense material export permits on a case by case basis, and being allies in NATO will be part of this holistic consideration process."

In September, Sweden approved shipments of defense products to Turkey after revoking all existing export permits to Ankara in 2019. In the same year, Finland made a political decision not to issue new export permits to Turkey, saying defense materials could not be sold to belligerent countries. It has since abandoned this position, sending military aid to Ukraine.

According to Kaikkonen, the Finnish government has already given several positive preliminary approvals for requests to export materials, and some permits may be issued for defense material exports to Turkey in the future.