According to Haavisto, attitudes towards Finns’ membership application have “advanced” in Turkey.
The Turkish media reported about a week ago that Turkey has suspended its ratification negotiations with Finland and Sweden. At the time, Haavisto estimated that the negotiations would probably be on hold for a few weeks. President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on Sunday that the country might be ready to ratify Finland’s but not Sweden’s membership application.
“I am sure that the statement reflects that we have made progress in the NATO process with Turkey and that they have the capabilities to quickly evaluate the matter in terms of ratifications,” Haavisto analyzed.
He said he would discuss the matter with both Swedish foreign ministers on Sunday Tobias Billström and the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. He said that Çavuşoğlu confirmed that the possibility of ratifying Finland’s membership application before Turkey’s parliamentary elections in May has been discussed.
“My understanding is that the Turkish leadership has had genuine discussions about the possibility that the current parliament will move forward with the ratification. But I am not able to further analyze the parliament’s mindset or schedule,” he said.
Haavisto repeated Finland’s position to Çavuşoğlu, according to which Finland and Sweden should be accepted into the defense alliance at the same time.
“Sweden is our closest partner in defense and security policy, and in this respect our position has not changed. NATO as an organization and NATO member countries have also emphasized how important it would be to have a defense plan [both] Finland and Sweden become NATO members. The progression of Finland’s and Sweden’s accession processes at the same time would strengthen NATO’s capabilities and security in the Baltic Sea and the entire NATO region, he reasoned.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
Source: The Nordic Page
