After months of work, the Finnish government finally persuaded Turkish President Erdogan to agree to ratify Finland’s accession today.NATOProgram of Since new NATO members must obtain the consent of all members, Finland overcame the Turkish barrier and still needed Hungary’s permission to officially join.
RussiaFollowing the full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February, Finland andSwedenReversing decades of military non-alignment, it applied to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) last May.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto today. Erdogan said at the meeting that Turkey’s parliament would start the process of approving Finland’s accession to NATO after Finland took concrete steps to fulfill its commitments.
He said Turkey would continue discussions with Sweden on issues related to terrorism. Whether Sweden can become a member of NATO will directly depend on the latter’s measures.
Erdogan remains reluctant to give Sweden the green light because he has refused to extradite Turkey to illegal Kurdish groups and suspects linked to the 2016 coup. Another analysis believes that Erdogan is reluctant to agree to the membership of the two countries, more or less because of the idea of seeking votes by taking a tough stance ahead of the election.
Elections will be held in Turkey on 14 May. Local inflation rates remain high, and the speed with which the government handled the earthquake in February has also led to high public discontent. Erdogan should have an uphill battle, and while fighting Kurdish terrorism is Turkey’s concern, playing this card could also work against opposition voters.
“The New York Times” reported that overall, the attention and influence caused by Erdoğan’s failure to follow the rules is very appealing to Turkish voters.
Now that Finland has given the green light to Turkey, a step ahead of Sweden, Niinisto said the process of joining NATO “would not be complete without Sweden” and hoped the two countries would join before the NATO summit in July. .
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said he supports both countries’ bid to join NATO, but the Hungarian government has made slow progress on the issue. Hungary’s parliament is expected to vote on the Finland-Sweden matter next week, but it appears there will be another delay.
When the European Union (EU) voted last year on whether to impose sanctions on Russia, Hungary used its veto power to secure concessions on other issues, and analysts said Orban would push for Nordic countries to join NATO. doing the same with
Finland and Sweden have been full partners of NATO since 1994 and have participated in NATO missions since the Cold War.
Finland has a smaller population than Sweden’s 5.5 million, but a well-funded defense sector with 280,000 soldiers and 870,000 reservists. Sweden has spent less on defense in recent decades, but is moving towards a NATO standard of 2 percent of economic output in 2026.
The Swedish Military Intelligence Security Agency (MUST) said in February that following the outbreak of the Ukraine war, the Nordic countries and Europe face the most serious security threat since the Cold War. Lena Hallin, head of the Swedish Military Intelligence and Security Agency, said the Russian military currently has limited ability to influence areas around Sweden, but could learn lessons from the Russia-Ukraine war and strengthen its military deployment. Can
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