Officially, Finland still wants to join NATO at the same time as its neighbor Sweden. First, because the two countries presented their candidature jointly, on May 18, 2022. Second, for security reasons: Helsinki and Stockholm believe that simultaneous membership would have much more effect from a defense point of view regional. However, faced with Ankara’s refusal to ratify the Swedish candidacy, the Finns are now preparing to join the Atlantic Alliance on their own.
On Tuesday 14 February, the deputies of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Finnish Parliament traveled to Stockholm to inform their Swedish counterparts that they were preparing to pass the laws which will allow their country to join NATO, as soon as its 30 Member States will have ratified Finland’s accession protocol. Twenty-eight have already done so. Only Turkey and Hungary remain.
At the same time, at a ministerial meeting in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg opened the door to separate membership, saying that “the main question [n’était] not whether the accessions of Finland and Sweden [étaient] ratified together, but that they both be ratified as soon as possible”.
On Wednesday, when Mr. Stoltenberg announced a surprise trip to Turkey, in order to provide assistance to the country after the earthquake which struck it and to meet President Erdogan in particular, he indicated that he would “ [demanderait] to ratify the two accession protocols at the same time”. “But it is up to Turkey to decide whether it wants to ratify both protocols or one of the two”, he explained. Before adding: “The most important thing is that Finland and Sweden will soon become members of the Alliance, and I will push for that. »
Turkey stonewalling
This change of strategy comes in a context of diplomatic crisis between Stockholm and Ankara, following the burning of the Koran by the right-wing extremist Rasmus Paludan, in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, on January 21. Since then, President Erdogan has made it known that he will oppose the Swedish candidacy, as long as Stockholm has not banned blasphemy.
In early January, Swedish Conservative Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, in office since October 2022, acknowledged that the negotiations had reached an impasse: “The Turks confirm that we did what we had to, but they also say that they want things that we cannot and we do not want to give them”he noted then, alluding in particular to the lists of Turkish nationals suspected by Ankara of terrorism, whose extradition Mr. Erdogan is demanding.
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