(Reuters) Finland maintains its plan to join NATO alongside its Nordic neighbor Sweden, and hopes to do so by July, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said Monday.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan signaled on Sunday that Ankara may agree to Finland’s entry into NATO before Sweden, amid growing tensions with Stockholm, and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu made similar statements on Monday.
“Our strong desire is still to join NATO together with Sweden,” Haavisto said at a press conference in Helsinki.
Last week, Turkey suspended negotiations on NATO membership with Sweden and Finland due to protests in Stockholm that included the burning of a Quran.
Sweden and Finland applied last year to join NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine and need the approval of all member countries to join. Turkey and Hungary have yet to ratify the Nordic countries’ membership.
“I still see the NATO summit in Vilnius in July as an important milestone when I hope that both countries will be accepted as members of NATO at the latest,” Haavisto said.
Turkey says it may evaluate Finland’s candidacy to NATO separate from Sweden
Turkey could evaluate Finland’s application for entry into the Western military alliance North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) independently of Sweden’s proposed membership, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Monday, after protests that included the burning of a Quran in Stockholm sparked outrage in Ankara.
“It is a fair approach to differentiate between a problematic country and a less problematic one. We can evaluate the (Finnish and Swedish) applications to NATO separately if NATO and these countries make a decision on this,” Cavusoglu said.
Sweden and Finland applied last year to join NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine and need the approval of all member countries to join. Turkey and Hungary have yet to ratify the Nordic countries’ membership.
Turkey has never been against the expansion of NATO, Cavusoglu added. But the measures taken by Sweden under a trilateral agreement signed last year are not enough, he said.
Last week, Turkey suspended negotiations on NATO with Sweden and Finland because of protests in Stockholm. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan signaled Sunday that Ankara may agree to Finland’s membership in NATO before Sweden.
Turkey says Sweden, in particular, harbors what it says are militants from the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984.