Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto expressed confidence that “sooner or later, Finland and Sweden will be members of NATO,” and that talks with the Turkish government will continue despite Ankara’s threats to prevent the two countries from joining the defensive alliance.
In an interview with CNN in Washington, DC on Friday, Haavisto said he expected the topic of Finland’s NATO membership and overcoming Turkey’s current opposition to come up in his discussions with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken later in the day, adding that he was “quite confident” that other NATO countries had also spoken with Turkey.
Delegations from Finland and Sweden – which both formally applied for NATO membership last week – traveled to Turkey earlier this week for talks on NATO accession. All current NATO members must approve new members.
Haavisto, who did not attend the talks, described it as an “excellent meeting” that lasted five hours. According to Haavisto, there are European and Finnish laws and policies in place that guide Finland’s actions on Turkey’s main demands – the designation of the PKK as a terrorist organization, the lifting of arms export controls, and the extradition of Kurdish militants considered terrorists by Turkey. Following the delegation’s visit, Turkish presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin stated that “if Turkey’s security concerns are not fulfilled with concrete steps, the process cannot progress.”
Haavisto said “there was an agreement to continue those discussions,” but the next round of talks has not yet been arranged.
“From our perspective, the time frame is essential, because we are, of course, looking forward to the NATO Summit in Madrid,” which is at the end of June, “and we hope that during the NATO Summit, the new members would be welcomed, at least, and the NATO ‘Open Door Policy’ would be confirmed, but of course, this is up to each and every member state that they can also influence the process,” he said.
The decisions by Finland and Sweden to apply for NATO was a major shift prompted by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
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