NATO said on Sunday 15 that it is convinced of the possibility of overcoming the obstacles Turkey has imposed in order to quickly accept applications for membership from Finland and Sweden. Just now, Helsinki has formalized its application to join the Atlantic Alliance as a direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geona said at a press conference in Berlin that the alliance is ready to “find all conditions for reconciliation” on the two Scandinavian countries’ membership applications.

Representatives of NATO member states met in the German capital this Sunday to discuss the issue of security guarantees for Sweden and Finland. The meeting was organized by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken after integration projects developed by Helsinki and Stockholm led to retaliation and threats from Russia.

Another obstacle is that Turkey openly opposes the participation of the two countries. On Friday the 13th, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he would not support the candidacy of Finland and Sweden because, according to him, the two countries are “strongholds of various terrorist organisations”. The Turkish president refers to the acceptance of Finland and Sweden by large numbers of Kurds, who since the 1970s are considered enemies by the Turkish government.

But a day later, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced that Ankara was ready to talk about possible integration of new NATO members. “The vast majority of Turkish people are against the membership of these countries that support the PKK. [Partido dos Trabalhadores do Curdistão], a terrorist organization (…). But these are, of course, issues that we need to address with our NATO allies and those countries.”

Finland formalizes its application for NATO membership

This Sunday, Finland announced that it has formalized its application to join NATO. Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, at a press conference with Prime Minister Sanna Marin, said, “This is a historic day. Here begins a new era.” said.

The day before, he called Russian President Vladimir Putin after Moscow announced that it did not refuse to take “military-technical” measures, taking into account the intentions of the two Scandinavian countries. On Saturday 14, electricity exports from Russia to Finland by the 100% Russian-owned company Rao Nordic were suspended. The official reason for the deduction was non-payment of debts.

“The meeting was direct and open, went smoothly. Avoiding tensions is considered important,” said Niinistö, who has been in frequent contact with the Russian president in recent years. In a statement issued by the Kremlin, Putin said it would be “a mistake” for Finland to join NATO. According to the Kremlin chief, there is “no threat to the security” of the country.

The Finnish Parliament will begin reviewing the accession project (16) on Monday, but analysts believe the vast majority of congressmen will support the initiative. Sharing a 1,300-kilometer border with Russia, Finland has adopted a stance of military neutrality for the past 75 years. But after Russia began invading Ukraine in February, political consensus and public opinion leaned in favor of NATO membership.

Sweden, another country that has historically been outside of military alliances, also plans to submit its candidacy for NATO membership soon, following Sunday’s meeting of the ruling Social Democratic Party.

support from allies

On Sunday, several NATO representatives expressed their support for the two countries, emphasizing the need for rapid acceptance of membership applications. Typically, the process takes one year to complete and requires consensus from all members.

“Germany has prepared everything so that the formalization of the ratification was swift,” said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. said. “We have to guarantee them security without the need for a transitional period,” he said.

Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly also supports this idea. He said he expects Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership to be completed “in the coming weeks”.

(With information from Reuters and AFP)