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Defense alliance: Hoping to join NATO: Finland’s President meets Erdogan

Defense alliance: Hoping to join NATO: Finland’s President meets Erdogan

For months, Turkey has blocked Sweden and Finland from joining NATO. Now, at least for Finland, there will soon be the green light – President Niinistö meets Erdogan and expects his approval.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could today announce his approval of Finland joining NATO without Sweden after months of blockade. Erdogan is expected to give the go-ahead for the move in the presence of Finnish President Sauli Niinistö in Istanbul. Finland’s admission could thus be ratified by parliament before the elections in Turkey on May 14.

Finland and Sweden had applied for NATO membership around ten months ago under the impression of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. 28 of the 30 current members of the western military alliance have ratified their accession protocols, only Hungary and Turkey not yet.

Ankara is blocking the accession, among other things, with reference to an insufficient fight against “terrorist organizations” among the NATO candidates. This means above all the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK. The objections are primarily aimed at Sweden.

Anti-Islamic protests in Stockholm

Since submitting the application in May 2022, Sweden and Finland have repeatedly emphasized that they want to be admitted to NATO at the same time and “hand in hand”. However, the Turkish blockade, which intensified after several Islamophobic protests in Stockholm at the beginning of the year, has greatly complicated this parallel step.

It has therefore been rumored for some time that Turkey would first agree to Finland joining NATO and that Sweden could then follow suit at a later date.

The fact that Erdogan would let Finland go first and Sweden wait was something people in northern Europe had been counting on more and more recently. During a visit to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) on Wednesday, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson confirmed that his country was also prepared for this possibility – even if he would still prefer joint accession with Finland.

Source: Stern

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