Turkey ratifies Finland’s NATO membership
ANKARA — Turkey’s parliament ratified on Thursday Finland’s accession to NATO, while Sweden’s bid to join the alliance is still blocked by Ankara and Budapest.
The measure passed unanimously by the parliament’s general assembly.
Finland and Sweden were formally invited to the North Atlantic alliance in June following breaking their historical military non alignment policy in face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year. Initially, Turkey gave its nod for them to become official invitees, but tabled a series of national security demands before ratifying their accession. NATO’s decision-making process requires consensus among all 30-member states.
Turkey’s requests from Finland were relatively easier to implement in comparison to those it asked from Sweden. Following minor amendments in its terrorism laws pertaining and removal of a de-facto defense sales embargo on Turkey, Helsinki met the majority of Ankara’s demands, paving the way for the ratification. Erdogan announced the formal initiation of the ratification process earlier this month during Finnish President Sauli Niinisto’s state visit to the country.
Turkey was the sole NATO member which was stalling the Nordic country’s accession following Hungary’s ratification earlier this week.
Sweden has also taken several steps to address Turkey’s concerns including amending its laws on terrorism. Stockholm also spearheaded a series of moves to support Ankara’s post-disaster efforts following the twin earthquakes that killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey. The Nordic country, however, has been unable to flex Ankara’s position
Ankara’s most contentious request from Stockholm is extradition of more than a hundred people over their alleged ties to terrorism. The two countries’ laws on terrorism differ highly.
Speaking alongside Niinisto, Erdogan said his country’s talks with Sweden would continue. “How the process will progress will be directly dependent on the concrete steps that Sweden will take,” he said.
Niinisto, whose country has been pressing for joint accession, for his part, expressed his solidarity for the Swedish bid, saying Finland’s accession to NATO would “not be complete without Sweden.”
Finland shares some 1,340-kilometer (800-mile) border with Russia which has invaded the country twice in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Along with Turkey, Hungary has also yet to ratify Sweden’s bid, despite pledging to do so repeatedly. NATO and Washington are seeking for joint accession ahead of the alliance’s upcoming leaders’ summit in Vilnius on July 11-12.
Following Turkey’s ratification, Finland’s NATO membership will be finalized by the US State Department and the Finnish authorities under the Washington Treaty.
This is a breaking story and will be updated
