After months of negotiations, Turkey also wants to admit Finland to NATO, several media reports. The Finnish President will travel to Turkey for talks on Thursday.
Turkey is about to accept Finland’s membership in NATO. The Finnish media report this unanimously. The Reuters news agency previously reported. Two Turkish officials told Reuters that Turkey’s parliament will “most likely” ratify Finland’s NATO bid before parliament goes into recess in mid-April – ahead of Turkey’s May 14 elections. The Finnish newspaper “Iltalehti” reports, citing its own sources, that an exact date has not yet been set.
The Helsinki newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, citing sources, reports that Turkey will most likely announce the ratification during President Sauli Niinistö’s visit to Turkey.
Earlier, the Finnish President’s Office announced that Niinistö would travel to Turkey at short notice on Thursday. He is scheduled to meet there with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday. Among other things, the membership of Finland and Sweden in NATO will also be discussed.
Turkey put the brakes on joining NATO
In June, Finland, together with Sweden, applied for NATO membership in response to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. With the exception of Turkey and Hungary, all NATO member states have ratified the accession of Sweden and Finland. However, all 30 states must agree to the applications for membership.
Turkey had blocked the accession process for a long time. Ankara refers to an allegedly insufficient fight against “terrorist organizations” among the NATO candidates. However, these objections are mainly aimed at Sweden. There were serious diplomatic tensions between Stockholm and Ankara, which is why Turkey has not yet given the green light for Sweden to join NATO. This means that Finland could become a NATO member before its neighbor. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Tuesday that the probability of this had increased.
Sources: , , , DPA news agency
Source: Stern
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