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What a staging: Finland’s admission was probably not sealed today at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, nor in the Finnish capital Helsinki, but in Istanbul, the Turkish metropolis, the former capital of the Ottoman Empire. There, the Finnish President Sauli Niinistö had an audience with the Turkish ruler Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A conversation between men.
What a show of force
Erdogan’s message: He now wants to give the green light – and “God willing” the Turkish parliament will soon approve Finland’s NATO membership. As has already become known in the past few days, such a decision can also be expected from Hungary at the end of the month.
All 30 NATO states would then have ratified Finland’s accession, and it could become legally binding before the elections in Finland on April 2nd and those in Turkey on May 14th.
Shortly before the presidential election, Erdogan shows that he has thwarted the Finnish-Swedish wish for a joint admission. He is generous towards Finland, but maintains resistance to Sweden for the time being. Especially since he accuses the country of supporting the banned Kurdish organization PKK. Erdogan is showing NATO that he can use his veto as he sees fit, that he is indispensable for the US and the other NATO countries.
A good day for NATO – despite everything
Even if NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had a different idea of Finland’s admission: his military alliance is getting a new member with a huge reserve army; around 900,000 Finns would be under arms in the event of war. Finland’s desire to join is driven by fear of NATO’s most dangerous adversary, Russia, with which Finland shares a 1,300-kilometer border.
The country is in an awkward position with the application for admission that has not yet been completed. The USA and other NATO countries have already promised Finland military assistance in the event of an attack. But the formal obligation to provide assistance to the NATO states with their current 3.3 million soldiers will only apply once Finland’s membership has been sealed.
Finally, the realization would be that Russian President Putin missed another of his goals in the war against Ukraine. After all, he wanted to weaken NATO, but has now strengthened and enlarged it with the accession of Finland – by Erdogan’s grace and “God willing”.