Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already made a decision on Finland’s accession to NATO, which will be officially announced on Friday during a visit by the Finnish head of state, Helsinki announced on Wednesday.
Last Friday, Erdogan had already hinted that he would fulfill the promise made in Helsinki to respond favorably to Finland’s request to join the Atlantic Alliance.
Since last year, Turkey has shown reservations about Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership applications, but today the Turkish parliament announced that it should ratify Finland’s membership in the organization.
When asked by reporters whether the Turkish parliament should ratify Finland’s accession, Erdogan reiterated his approval.
“We will do our part. We will keep our promise. We will meet with the Finnish president on Friday and we will fulfill our promise,” the Turkish leader assured.
On Friday, the Finnish president, Sauli Niinisto, will meet Erdogan in Helsinki and already today assured that the issue of his country’s accession to NATO is part of the work agenda.
Niinisto also said that he has been in contact with Sweden, whose process of joining the Atlantic Alliance could be separated from Finland’s entry, taking into account the resistance that Turkey continues to put up in this process, accusing Stockholm of collusion with insurgent terrorist movements.
Just this week, the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, acknowledged that Finland must be prepared to join NATO before his country and assured that his government is prepared for that situation.
“We do not hide that we would prefer to be ratified together, to walk the path together, but we respect the possibility of having separate accessions over time,” Kristersson said.
Sweden and Finland renounced their traditional policy of military non-alignment and applied to join the Atlantic Alliance after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Source: TSF
