Before the legislative elections of April 2 in Finland, the deputies want to vote the laws which will allow their country to become a member of the Atlantic Alliance, as soon as their candidacy has been ratified.
by Philippe Jacqué (Brussels, European office) and Anne-Françoise VOIST (Malmö (Sweden), regional correspondent)
Officially, Finland always wants to join NATO at the same time as its Swedish neighbor. First, because the two countries presented their candidacy jointly, May 18, 2022. Then, for security reasons: Helsinki and Stockholm believe that simultaneous membership would have much more effect from the defense point of view regional. However, faced with Ankara’s refusal to ratify the Swedish candidacy, the Finns are now preparing to join the Atlantic Alliance alone.
Tuesday, February 14, deputies of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Finnish Parliament made the trip to Stockholm to inform their Swedish counterparts that they were preparing to vote the laws that will allow their country to join NATO, As soon as its thirty member states have ratified Finland’s membership protocol. Twenty-eight have already done so. Only Turkey and Hungary remain.
At the same time, during a ministerial meeting in Brussels, the secretary general of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, opened the door to separate membership, affirming that “the main question [was not] not to know If the memberships of Finland and Sweden [were] ratified together, but they are both ratified as soon as possible. “
Wednesday, when Mr. Stoltenberg announced a surprise trip to Turkey to provide assistance to the country after the earthquake that struck him and notably meet President Erdogan, he indicated that he “[ would ask] to ratify the two membership protocols at the same time “” but it is up to Turkey to decide if it wants to ratify the two protocols or one of the two, “he said. Before adding: “The most important thing is that Finland and Sweden soon become members of the Alliance, and I will put pressure for that.”
Obstruction of Turkey
This change of strategy occurs in a context of diplomatic crisis between Stockholm and Ankara, following the Koran autodafé by the right -wing extremist Rasmus Paludan, in front of the Turkey Embassy in Stockholm on January 21. Since then, President Erdogan has indicated that he would oppose the Swedish candidacy, as long as Stockholm has not prohibited blasphemy.
At the beginning of January, the Swedish conservative prime minister Ulf Krissels, in office since October 2022, had recognized that the negotiations had reached a dead end: “The Turks confirm that we did what we should, but they also say that They want things that we cannot and we do not want to give them, “noted Mr. Krissels, alluding in particular to the lists of Turkish nationals suspected by Ankara de Terrorism, which Mr. Erdogan claims extradition.
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