Breakthrough just before the start of the NATO summit: Turkey gives up its resistance to Finland and Sweden joining. With this, NATO is sending the hoped-for signal of unity to Moscow.
Turkey has given up its opposition to the admission of Sweden and Finland to NATO. Ankara will support the invitation to Finland and Sweden to join the alliance during the NATO summit in Madrid, said Finnish President Sauli Niinistö. A corresponding memorandum was signed after a meeting with Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Sweden’s Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In it, the three states undertake to “provide full support against threats to the security of the other”.
In talks with the two Nordic countries, Turkey “got what it wanted,” said the Turkish Presidential Office. “I am pleased to be able to complete this stage on Finland’s path to NATO membership,” said Finland’s President Niinistö.
In view of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the governments in Helsinki and Stockholm had given up their decades-long policy of extensive military neutrality and decided to join the military alliance. However, both countries are already close partners in the defense alliance. Nonetheless, it is a historic step.
However, all previous members must unanimously agree to the admission of new ones. Turkey had accused the two countries, among other things, of harboring supporters of terrorist groups such as the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK, the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG and the Gülen movement. Stockholm and Helsinki reject this. Both have long viewed Russia as a threat. In Finland’s case, this also has to do with the fact that the country has a border with Russia that is more than 1,300 kilometers long. No other EU country borders the giant empire over such a long distance.
The Turkish President Erdogan was also concerned with lifting restrictions on arms exports to Turkey. NATO partners such as Germany, but also other EU countries such as Sweden, partially stopped arms deliveries to Turkey in protest against a Turkish offensive against the YPG in northern Syria in 2019. Turkey sees this as an affront, as it sees the deployment in Syria as a necessary step in the fight against terrorism. Stoltenberg recently tried to mediate between Turkey and the two possible future members. He stressed several times that Turkey’s objections had to be taken seriously – apparently that has now been done.
Originally there was hope that Finland and Sweden could become official NATO members before the end of this year. Following the completion of the admission process within NATO, the accession protocols will need to be ratified by parliaments in all 30 Allies, which diplomats estimate should be completed within six to eight months.
