SRelief for Sweden and Finland. On Wednesday, June 29, NATO leaders, meeting at the Madrid summit, formally launched the process of joining these two countries. This was made possible by the lifting of the Turkish veto the night before. “We have decided today to invite Finland and Sweden to become members of NATO and have decided to sign the accession protocols,” Alliance leaders said in a joint statement.
Emmanuel Macron welcomed Wednesday the “consensus” found the day before on NATO membership of Finland and Sweden after the lifting of Turkey’s veto, following a meeting with his Turkish counterpart. Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Madrid. The entry into the Atlantic Alliance of these two countries, which “have robust and interoperable capabilities”, will “significantly contribute to the security of all the allies”, underlined the Head of State, according to remarks reported by the Élysée.
Sweden relieved but worried
This membership was blocked by Turkey, a member of NATO since 1952, which accused Stockholm and Helsinki in particular of harboring militants of the Kurdish organization PKK, which Ankara considers “terrorist”. But, after long negotiations, Erdogan gave his agreement to their entry on Tuesday evening, having estimated that he had obtained their “full cooperation” in his fight against the PKK.
Sweden remains torn between the relief and concern of left-wing parties and the Kurdish community over the concessions made to Ankara. “We did not lie down in front of [le président turc Recep Tayyip] Erdogan,” Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said Wednesday from Madrid. “We will not proceed with an extradition when there is no proof of terrorist activity. There is no reason for the Kurds to believe that their human or democratic rights are threatened”, assured the Minister of Foreign Affairs in an interview with the newspaper Aftonbladet.
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The “memorandum of understanding” to lift the Turkish veto was signed with Turkey and Finland in front of the cameras at the NATO summit in Madrid, with visible relief on the Nordic side. Faced with a Russia now considered a threat since its invasion of Ukraine, the concern was to see the file dragging on for months, thus pushing back NATO’s defense umbrella, reserved only for full members of the Atlantic Alliance.