Turkey approved Thursday, after ten months of suspense, the adhesion of Finland to NATO, last country of the Alliance to give the green light after that of Hungary. At the end of a brief debate, during which they recognized Finland’s “legitimate security concerns”, the Turkish MPs unanimously voted by the 276 MPs present for the entry of this small Nordic country into the Atlantic Alliance, while Sweden still remains at the door.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the ratification, saying it would make “the NATO family stronger and safer”. Finnish President Sauli Niinistö meanwhile thanked all (Member States) for their trust and support, wishing Sweden’s entry “as soon as possible”. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the lifting of his veto on March 17 when he received Mr. Niinistö in Ankara, a decision immediately welcomed by the Atlantic Alliance. The Turkish parliamentary foreign affairs committee had approved this membership last week.
Finland now only has to send its “instruments of ratification” to Washington, where the Alliance treaty is kept. The Hungarian parliament also approved, on Monday, the accession of Finland but also blocks that of Sweden. The applications for membership of the two Nordic countries had however been submitted together last year after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and required the unanimity of the member countries of NATO to be approved.
The Finnish president had expressed his “hope” for ratification ahead of Turkey’s presidential and legislative elections scheduled for May 14, with parliament due to adjourn about a month before the double ballot is held. Finland, subject to forced neutrality by Moscow after its war with the Soviet Union in World War II, shares the longest European border (1,340 km) with Russia, behind Ukraine.
“The most important thing is that Finland and Sweden quickly become full members of NATO, not that they join exactly at the same time,” Stoltenberg said. Mr. Erdogan is still blocking the enlargement of NATO to Sweden by reproaching him for his passivity in the face of the presence of Kurdish “terrorists” welcomed on his soil and calls for extraditions on which the government does not have the last word. A deputy of the pro-Kurdish HDP party, the country’s third political force, Hisyar Ozsoy, also denounced during the debate before the vote “the horrible blackmail” of the Turkish government on the two candidate countries.
The Kremlin, which at first seemed to play down the importance of the candidacies of Finland and Sweden, has hardened its tone in recent weeks, estimating on Tuesday that the two countries would become, once admitted to NATO, ” legitimate targets” of “retaliation from Moscow”, including “military”. Sweden had, in the wake of Wednesday, announced the summons of the Russian ambassador to Stockholm.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also said last week that Moscow would deploy “tactical” nuclear weapons on the territory of its ally, Belarus, located on the doorstep of the European Union. The situation remains delicate for Sweden, which continues to face objections from Ankara. “There have been no positive steps taken by Sweden regarding the list of terrorists,” Erdogan said, referring to more than 120 extradition requests made by Ankara.
The burning of a copy of the Koran by an extremist in the Swedish capital in January led to the suspension of talks between Ankara, Helsinki and Stockholm. The Turkish president then hinted that Turkey was ready to separately approve Finland’s membership, although the two countries originally wanted to move forward “hand in hand”. However, Stockholm hopes to complete its country’s entry into the Alliance before the next NATO summit, scheduled for July in Vilnius, Lithuania.
