The visit of the Finnish president, Sauli Niinistö, was marked in Ankara on Friday with pomp and splendour. Together with the Finnish foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, there have been meetings in the capital about Finnish NATO membership. At a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Finnish President Niinistö on Friday afternoon, it is expected that Turkey will declare its yes to Finnish NATO membership. Ahead of the trip, Niinistö said he expected to get the green light for Finland’s NATO application in a meeting with Erdoğan. Now only a bit of paperwork awaits in Brussels and Washington, before it can all become a formal reality. Sweden and Finland initially wanted to join NATO at the same time, but when it turned out that Sweden’s application would be a bigger nut to crack and that Finland could join alone, Finnish membership was unproblematic for Turkey. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre th European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg and Equinor chief Anders Opedal on the left visit the Troll A platform on Friday. Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB – It is important to get both Finland and Sweden in as soon as possible, says NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, who today visited the Troll platform in the North Sea together with Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Ap) and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The long-awaited yes Finland has been an official partner of NATO since 1994 and participated in several exercises with the alliance since the end of the Cold War. However, they have a long history as a neutral nation when it comes to defense alliances. Then Russia and Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine and with that a new basis was formed for a new debate about NATO membership among the Finns, who share a 1,340 kilometer long border with Russia. They had to ask themselves: could the same thing happen to us? They don’t want to wait to find out. Therefore, on 18 May last year, they submitted a joint application for NATO membership together with Sweden. The only thing they lacked now was the support of all NATO member states. But getting the approval of all 30 member states would prove to be more complicated than expected. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg together with Finland and Sweden’s application for NATO membership in Brussels last year. Photo: JOHANNA GERON / AFP Uncertain for Sweden Since this spring day in Brussels last year, neither Turkey nor Hungary have given their final “yes” to either Finland or Sweden. Hungary has always promised to agree, and that this will happen in early 2023. But they have postponed the decision several times, now on Tuesday at the latest. Viktor Orban and Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Turkey yesterday. Neither Hungary nor Turkey has approved Sweden’s and Finland’s application for NATO membership. Photo: AP The biggest obstacle has nevertheless turned out to be Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey has said that it is primarily Sweden that is the problem and has thus stood in the way of Finland and Sweden’s vision of joining NATO together. Among other things, the country has demanded that Sweden must remove its ban on arms exports to Turkey, security guarantees and extradition of people Turkey considers terrorists; including Kurdish separatists. They have also accused Sweden of supporting the Gülen movement, which Turkey believes was behind an attempted coup in 2016. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants an extradition agreement with the Swedes before accepting Swedish NATO membership. The pain got worse after the right-wing radical politician Rasmus Paludan set fire to the Koran outside the Turkish embassy in Sweden’s capital at the end of January. The Turks reacted to the fact that the Swedish authorities did not stop the announced Koran burning. This led to the Nato talks being frozen for several weeks, before Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson confirmed that talks between Turkey and Sweden would resume this month. Thus, it did not turn out as the Finns and Swedes had hoped for. Now it remains to be seen whether both countries are official NATO members before the summit in July. Turks set fire to a Swedish flag outside the Swedish consulate in Istanbul after the Koran burning in Stockholm in January. Photo: UMIT BEKTAS / Reuters
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Erdogan gives Finland NATO guarantee – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
