MADRID / HELSINKI – NATO ally Turkey lifted its veto on Finland and Sweden’s attempt to join the Western Alliance on Tuesday after the three nations agreed to protect each other’s security, ending a week-long drama that tested Allied unity against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The breakthrough came after four hours of talks just before a NATO summit began in Madrid, which averted an embarrassing dead end at the gathering of 30 leaders aiming to show determination against Russia, which is now seen by the US-led alliance as a direct security threat rather than a possible opponent.
This means that Helsinki and Stockholm can move forward with their application to join the nuclear alliance, and cement what will be the biggest change in European security in decades, as the two, long-neutral Nordic countries seek protection from NATO.
“Our Foreign Ministers signed a trilateral memorandum confirming that Turkey will … support Finland’s and Sweden’s invitation to join NATO,” said Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in a statement.
“The concrete steps for our accession to NATO will be approved by NATO allies over the next two days, but that decision is now imminent,” Niinisto said.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the Turkish Presidency confirmed the agreement in separate statements, following talks between NATO chief, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Niinisto.
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson tweeted: “Fantastic news as we launch the NATO Summit. Sweden and Finland’s membership will make our brilliant alliance stronger and more secure.”
Stoltenberg said that NATO’s 30 leaders would now invite Finland, which shares a 1,300 km border with Russia, and Sweden to join NATO, and that they would be officially “invited”.
‘The door is open. Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to NATO will take place, Stoltenberg said.
But even with a formal invitation granted, NATO’s 30 allied parliaments must ratify the leaders’ decision, a process that could take up to a year.
Terms of the deal
Turkey’s main demand, which came as a surprise to NATO allies in May, was for the Nordic countries to stop supporting Kurdish militant groups in their territory and to lift their bans on certain arms sales to Turkey.
Stoltenberg said that the terms of the agreement meant that Sweden intensified its work with Turkish extradition requests of suspected militants and changed Swedish and Finnish law to sharpen their attitude towards them.
Stoltenberg said that Sweden and Finland would lift their restrictions on selling weapons to Turkey.
Turkey has expressed serious concern that Sweden has hosted what they say are militants from the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. Stockholm denies the accusation.
The Turkish presidency’s statement said the four-way agreement reached on Tuesday meant “full cooperation with Turkey in the fight against the PKK and its affiliates.”
It also said that Sweden and Finland “show solidarity with Turkey in the fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.”
US President Joe Biden, who arrived in Madrid before a dinner with his NATO colleagues, did not directly address the issue in his public comments with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and King Felipe of Spain.
But he emphasized the unity of the alliance and said that NATO was “as galvanized as I think it has ever been.”
Biden will have a meeting with Erdogan during the NATO summit. Erdogan said before going to Madrid that he would pressure Biden on a purchase of an F-16 fighter jet.
He said he would discuss with Biden the issue of Ankara’s acquisition of the S-400 air defense system from Russia, which led to US sanctions as well as modernization efforts from Washington and other bilateral issues.
The solution to the stalemate marked a triumph for intense diplomacy as NATO allies sought to seal Nordic accession in record time as a way to consolidate their response to Russia – especially in the Baltic Sea, where Finnish and Swedish membership would give the alliance military superiority.
In the Nordic region, Norway, Denmark and the three Baltic states are already members of NATO. Russia’s war in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a ‘special military operation’, helped to topple decades of Swedish opposition to joining NATO.
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Reuters
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Source: sn.dk