Turkey on Friday announced it would move to ratify Finland’s application to join NATO, removing a significant hurdle to the Nordic country’s bid to join the alliance but leaving neighboring Sweden in disarray. Dien must stay out.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey told a news conference, saying he hoped the vote would take place before the mid-May elections: “We have decided to start the ratification process in the National Assembly. our association to become a member of Finland.
The announcement came as the Finnish president, Sauli Niinisto, met in Ankara with Mr. Both leaders had telegraphed that the announcement was imminent, in which Mr Erdogan said this week that Turkey would “keep our promises”.
Finland’s accession to NATO after decades of non-alignment would be a major shift in the balance of power in the region between the Western military alliance and Russia. It represents an important diplomatic and strategic failure for Moscow and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin.
Mr. Putin made it clear before invading Ukraine last year that his intention was to prevent NATO expansion. But instead, his invasion convinced the leaders of Finland and Sweden that there was no real guarantee of security for them outside the alliance.
Finland shares an 830-mile border with Russia, the longest in Europe and has a long history of resisting Moscow’s hegemony. Advocating self-reliance, Finland did not shrink its military after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and 10 months ago it wooed a more reluctant Sweden to apply to join NATO.
But Mr. Erdogan has stopped them, arguing that Sweden has become a haven for Kurdish separatists and other dissidents whom he considers terrorists. So far, Stockholm’s efforts to please him, including a new anti-terrorism law, have failed.
The Turkish president has occasionally requested the extradition of more than 120 people currently in Sweden, as he did again on Friday. Negotiations are likely to continue in the hope that Turkey will eventually accept Sweden’s membership after the Turkish elections in May, but before the NATO summit meeting in Lithuania in mid-July.
Erdogan’s decision paves the way for the Turkish parliament to approve Finland’s membership in the alliance, which requires the unanimity of the bloc’s 30 countries. Hungary is the only other country where the Parliament has not yet approved the Finnish or Swedish bids. Its leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, left a vacancy on when the Hungarian Parliament would vote, although he insisted that Hungary had no objection to membership of either Nordic country.
With the elections in Finland on April 2, the current government of the country has decided to pass all the necessary laws to join NATO in order to prevent any period of instability while the new government established. So the only votes left went to the Turkish and Hungarian Parliaments.
On Friday, Mr. Niinisto thanked Mr. Erdogan for the ratification move but told a news conference that Finland’s membership was “not complete without Sweden”.
The Turkish leader faces a tough election battle in mid-May with a difficult economy and high inflation, as well as criticism of his government’s handling of the recent devastating earthquake. The Kurdish fight against terrorism is a popular political act in Turkey and is also supported by opposition voters. And Turks in general enjoy the attention and leverage that Erdogan’s unpredictability often brings.
Hungary used its veto power in the European Union about sanctions against Russia to try to win concessions on other issues, and analysts say Orban appears to be doing the same for Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO. Orban is also known to be annoyed by criticism of Hungary within the European Union from Sweden and Finland.
Johanna Lemola, Gulsin Harman And Anushka Patil contribution report.
