Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has hinted that Ankara may soon approve Finland’s application to join NATO and allow it to join a separate military alliance with Sweden.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago, Finland and Sweden applied to join the NATO alliance, abandoning decades of non-alignment.
All 30 NATO members have accepted their requests and 28 have ratified their accession, but only Turkey and Hungary have not yet done so.
Turkey has vetoed Finland and Sweden. Ankara had signed a protocol with the two countries, which is a pledge not to openly support organizations that Turkey has designated as terrorists.
The Turkish government accuses Sweden of being too soft on groups it considers “terrorist” organizations and existential threats, including Kurdish groups.
Turkish authorities have also been angered by a series of protests in Sweden, including that of an anti-Islam activist who burned a Koran outside the Turkish embassy.
Ankara has said it has few problems with Finland’s membership. Asked by reporters on Wednesday whether Turkey could ratify Finland’s membership following a visit by Finnish President Sauli Niensto this week.
So President Erdogan replied, “Allah will do well, if it is good for everyone.”
We will follow this process, we will do our part, we will fulfill our promise, we will meet with the President of Finland on Friday and we will fulfill the promise we made,” Erdogan said.
The Finnish president is due to arrive in Turkey on Thursday with Foreign Minister Pekka Havastu.
Comments
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&appId=1763457670639747&version=v2.3”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));