Finland wants to join NATO, Turkey doesn’t care
After meeting with his Finnish counterpart, Sauli Niinistö, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Ankara has started the process of ratifying Finland’s NATO membership. Previously, Turkey was categorically against this, demanding that Kurdish organizations be declared terrorists.
“Finland has taken concrete steps to fulfill the conditions of the memorandum necessary for NATO accession. We are ready and have decided to start the process of ratifying Finland’s accession to NATO. “We are confident that Finland will play an active role in ensuring NATO’s security,” Erdogan said.
According to him, Ankara can vote in the parliament before the 14 May Turkish general elections.
“We had to leave [заявку] Finland from Sweden, because there was no such problem. We showed our positive attitude towards Finland with our signature. After that the commission, then the general assembly [турецкого парламента будет рассматривать документ]. I hope we will solve this problem before the elections. It is good for our countries,” he said.
Finland’s NATO accession protocol was submitted to the Presidency of the Turkish Grand National Assembly on Friday, Anadolu reported.
Sweden also wants to join NATO
Ankara still has a claim on Sweden. Turkish authorities believe that Sweden has not fulfilled the terms of the memorandum. Erdogan said that Sweden “opened weapons to terrorism”.
“We cannot support Sweden joining NATO because they refuse to extradite 120 terrorists. We will continue our dialogue with them during this process, but this depends entirely on the steps taken by Stockholm.”
Still, Stockholm leaves no hope for a swift approval of its application to join the bloc of countries after the elections in Turkey.
“Of course we hope for a quick approval process after the elections in Turkey. Speaking after his meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said, “We are pleased with the support we have received from all NATO members, including the security field.”
Kristersson also noted that his country is ready for Finland to join NATO before becoming the kingdom.
Hungary has not yet ratified
In May 2022, Finland and Sweden expressed their desire to join NATO, stating that events in Ukraine prompted them to do so. However, their application was blocked by Turkey. Ankara demanded that Helsinki and Stockholm designate the Kurds as terrorists and extradite those accused of terrorism or involvement in the 2016 coup attempt.
In Madrid at the end of June last year, before the start of the NATO summit, Stoltenberg, the organization’s Secretary General, met with Erdogan, Niinistö and Magdalena Andersson, who was then Swedish Prime Minister. The parties signed a memorandum allowing both countries to join the alliance.
Applications from Turkey and Hungary, as well as Finland and Sweden, have not yet been approved. Prime Minister Viktor Orban supported the proposals of both candidate countries. The draft law on the approval of the protocols on the accession of countries to the alliance was presented to the parliament by the Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó.
The ruling FIDES party said it would support the candidates’ applications, but set one condition: “the dispute must be resolved” with its Finnish and Swedish counterparts before Hungary can consent to Sweden and Finland joining NATO. Parliamentarians are troubled by the recent accusations by Helsinki and Stockholm of Hungary of violating the principles of democracy and the rule of law.
Then the parties came together, negotiated and reached a compromise. Voting will take place in the Hungarian Parliament on 31 March.
At the same time, Finland is ready to provide assistance to Sweden if its application is approved before the application of its Swedish colleagues. “If Finland becomes a member of NATO before Sweden does, we will do everything we can to ensure that Sweden joins NATO as soon as possible. “As we have a common northern security environment, everyone is interested in Finland and Sweden joining the bloc together,” he said.
Finnish President Sauli Niinistö believes that his country’s membership in the military-political bloc would not be complete without Sweden. “We are neighbors and we have a lot in common. I want us to meet in Vilnius with an alliance of 32 people,” he said.
Russia regrets the decision of Sweden and Finland to join NATO.
“We have repeatedly said that Russia poses no threat to these countries in any way, because we do not have any disagreements with these countries, and these countries have never claimed to be anti-Russian,” said presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Russian Federation.