Helsinki cannot reject Ankara’s ratification of the application to join the alliance, the Finnish leader emphasized.
Finnish President Sauli Niiniste said Sweden’s security would not be affected if his country joined NATO first. This was reported on March 19 by the Associated Press, citing an interview with a politician from the Swedish television company SVT.
“The security situation in Sweden is not a threat even if Finland joins NATO first,” the Finnish leader emphasized.
Niiniste also noted that he is considering his decision to join NATO without waiting for Sweden to get it right.
“What, should we reject Turkey’s ratification (application to join the alliance)? It’s a bit crazy. The situation would be very difficult if we said no to Ankara,” he said.
The head of state added that Finland, Sweden and Denmark are currently in separate security talks with the United States, in an attempt to reach a bilateral military agreement similar to the one Norway negotiated with Washington earlier.
“I think this is a big change, almost more than NATO membership … It means a lot if all of us (Scandinavian countries) have a direct and very similar (military) agreement with the United States,” said Niiniste. .
Remember, on March 17, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that his country is starting the process of ratifying Finland’s application to join NATO. He explained that the Finnish side fulfilled its part of the agreements.
As reported Correspondent.net, Last May, Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO and initially planned to join the alliance together.
NATO needs unanimous approval of the 30 current members for expansion, but Turkey and Hungary have yet to ratify the Nordic bids.
The Hungarian parliament has postponed voting on the issue until the end of March. Turkey has blocked the process, demanding that the two countries designate Kurdish organizations as terrorist organizations and extradite people accused of terrorism in Turkey, as well as lift embargoes on arms supplies to Ankara.
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.