Finland and Sweden applied for membership in NATO together, and together the countries will enter the Western defense alliance. This has been a read and accepted truth, repeated by politicians from both countries, most recently during the Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s visit to Stockholm on 2 February. But for a long time, Turkey and the country’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan have made it clear that it is not relevant to approve Sweden as a NATO member. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has slowed the application process to NATO for Finland and Turkey. Photo: ADEM ALTAN / AFP The reason is that Sweden has granted residence to Kurdish activists and other critics of the regime in Turkey. In addition, Turkey was strongly critical of the Swedish authorities agreeing to the right-wing extremist Rasmus Paludan being allowed to burn the Koran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. Turkey asks Sweden to stop planned protest in Stockholm Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in connection with a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Ankara on Monday that talks with Sweden and Finland should continue. “The situation is dangerous for Finland” In a commentary article in Finland’s largest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, Jarmo Huhtanen writes that it was right to apply for membership together with Sweden, but wrong to bind the application process to the neighboring country in the west. “The more Finland and Sweden have announced that they are committing to a joint search process, the more dangerous the situation has become for Finland,” writes Huhtanen, who is one of the newspaper’s security policy commentators. The newspaper points out that, in contrast to Sweden, Finland is in a completely different situation with a 1,340 kilometer long border with Russia. On 17 May 2022, 188 of the 200 representatives in the Finnish Riksdag agreed that Finland should apply for membership in NATO. Photo: Antti Aimo-Koivisto / AP “It would be quite special if our good neighbor Sweden did not understand Finland’s need to join NATO as quickly as possible. At the same time, this would also increase Sweden’s security,” writes Huhtanen, in a widely published article published at the weekend. When the influential Helsingin Sanomat in this way comes out so boldly and says that it is now time for Finland to face the realities and enter NATO without Sweden, it sends out an important signal both internally in Finland, and not least to the rest of the world . Finnish reservists on exercise in Taipalsaari. Finland can quickly mobilize more than 20,000 soldiers. Photo: Lauri Heino / AP Finland a member of NATO before 1 April? On February 28, the Finnish Riksdag will formally vote on whether to say yes or no to NATO membership. There are elections for the Finnish parliament in April, and the NATO vote now suggests that the election campaign does not cause problems for the membership process. – We will get a combat power we have not been close to in the Nordics. The vote is a formality because there is a large majority among the political parties to support membership in the Western defense alliance. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö about the NATO process at the security conference in Munich last weekend. Photo: Brendan Smialowski / AP A survey carried out by Finnish radio and TV YLE shows that a majority of the parties now also support Finland joining NATO, without Sweden. Only the Finnish SV Left Party says no to going it alone for Finland, while the governing party Social Democrats with Prime Minister Sanna Marin has not given any answer, according to YLE. But all the parties emphasize that the best thing is still for Sweden and Finland to join NATO together. There are therefore many indications that Finland will become a member of NATO alone, and that this could happen very quickly, once the parliaments in Turkey and Hungary have given their approval. Both countries have already given signals that the Finnish application is not a problem. This could make it possible for Finland to become a member of NATO within a short time, perhaps as early as 1 April. Finnish President Sauli Niinistö will visit the Swedish capital Stockholm on Wednesday 22 February for talks with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre is also going to Stockholm on Wednesday.
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Finland will probably join NATO – without Sweden – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
