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TURKISH PRESIDENT RECEP Tayyip Erdogan has ended months of diplomatically charged delays and asked parliament to quickly back Finland’s bid to join NATO.
A simultaneous decision by fellow holdout Hungary to schedule a Finnish ratification vote for 27 March means the US-led defence alliance will likely grow to 31 nations within a few months.
NATO’s expansion into a country with a 1,340-kilometre border with Russia will roughly double the length of the bloc’s current frontier with its Cold War-era foe.
Finland had initially aimed to join together with fellow NATO aspirant Sweden – a Nordic power facing a litany of disputes with Turkey that ultimately sunk its chance to join the bloc before an alliance summit in July.
Helsinki and Stockholm ended decades of military non-alignment and decided to join the world’s most powerful defence alliance in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Their applications were accepted at a June NATO summit that signalled the Western world’s desire to stand up to Russia in the face of Europe’s gravest conflict since World War II.
But the bids still needed to be ratified by all 30 of the alliance members’ parliaments – a process that got hung up once it reached Turkey and Hungary.
The breakthrough followed months of tense negotiations between Ankara and the Nordic neighbours that threatened to collapse several times.
Erdogan told Finnish President Sauli Niinisto that Helsinki had shown a strong commitment to addressing Ankara’s security concerns.
“We decided to start the protocol of Finland’s accession to NATO in our parliament,” Erdogan told reporters after the talks.
Erdogan added that he “hoped” that parliament will approve the application before Turkey’s crucial general election in May.
The Turkish parliament is expected to end its current session in mid-April.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Turkey’s decision while stressing the importance of Sweden also joining “as soon as possible”.
“The most important thing is that both Finland and Sweden become full members of NATO quickly, not whether they join at exactly the same time,” Stoltenberg said.
The White House echoed the NATO chief’s position. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the United States urged Hungary to conclude its ratification process both for Sweden and Finland “without delay”.
And France’s foreign ministry called Turkey’s announcement about Finland “an important signal” while reiterating support for Sweden’s bid as well.
Erdogan had accused the Nordic neighbours of breaking the terms of a separate deal they reached in June 2022 under which Turkey agreed to approve the bids.
Turkey has sought the extradition of dozens of Kurdish and other suspects it accuses of ties to outlawed militants and a failed 2016 coup attempt.
Erdogan’s demands became more urgent as he neared a May election in which he will need a strong turnout from nationalist supporters to extend his two-decade rule.
The Turkish leader voiced particular displeasure with Sweden – a country with a larger Kurdish diaspora and a longer history of disputes with Ankara.
Finland and Sweden had initially resisted the idea of breaking up their bids.
But Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson – who made NATO membership a priority after assuming office in October – acknowledged on Tuesday that the likelihood of Finland joining the bloc on its own had “increased”.
The Finnish president called Erdogan’s decision Friday “very important for the whole of Finland”.
But he added: “Finland’s application is not complete without Sweden.”
Sweden expressed disappointment at being excluded from this round of NATO expansion.
“This is a development that we did not want, but that we were prepared for,” Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told reporters in Stockholm.
The talks in Ankara put more pressure on Hungary’s parliament to end its own ratification delays.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban enjoys a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has numerous disputes with both NATO and the European Union.
The Hungarian parliament began debating the two NATO bids at the beginning of the month.
But the vote’s timing was complicated by a separate dispute Budapest had with Brussels over blocked EU funding and Hungary’s commitment to the rule of law and fighting corruption.
Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said Orban’s ruling Fidesz party “supports Finland’s NATO accession”.
“The parliamentary vote will take place on March 27,” Kovacs said in a Twitter message.
Orban’s parliamentary group leader Mate Kocsis said Fidesz “will decide on the case of Sweden later”.
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Ironic how putin has united and even expanded NATO.
Great news and there are plenty more nations to join shortly to stop russias aggression
And Russia is supposed to be the aggressor??
@John Fahy: yes Russia definitely is. Can you explain how Finland applying to join Nato is either of them being the aggressor?
@John Fahy: How is NATO being aggressive? You know how it works right? Countries apply for NATO membership. NATO doesn’t force countries to join them. Unlike Russia.
@John Fahy: Moscow invaded Finland in 1939
@John Fahy: time to educate yourself ! You do understand that Finland is joining NATO because of russias invasion?
@ForrestG45: and Germany invaded Poland
@NotMyIreland: it’s important to keep a buffer of non-aligned countries between NATO and Russia. If that goes (and it’s nearly gone), war is likely. Go read a history book or two.
@John Fahy: seeing as NATO is a defensive alliance id guess they wont fire the first shot if it does come to war
@John Fahy: Finland would have remained non-aligned if it wasn’t for Russian imperialist aggression against its neighbours. Have you ever asked yourself why practically all the former Warsaw Pact countries of Eastern Europe are now NATO members? Why Georgia and Ukraine want EU and NATO membership? Why Finland and Sweden now want NATO membership? The clue is in decades of Russian aggression.
@John Fahy: you mean non aligned countries like Georgia and Ukraine? Look how that worked out for them. Don’t be daft. If Russia wasn’t invading countries then there would be no need for countries to apply to join NATO and I don’t blame any country of the former USSR for wanting to protect themselves since Putin has openly stated he’d like to see the reunion of the old empire.
@John Fahy: or maybe you should go look up the definition of aggressor.
@John Fahy: well yes seeing as they have invaded Ukraine. Tell me how does Finland joining NATO change who the aggressor is?
Dreadful.
@Gareth McMahon: for whom?
@Gareth McMahon: You’re just sour that your idol’s plan has backfired. He wanted to stop NATO expansion, he’s got the opposite.
@Elrond Rivendell: lol my idol!! Putin is not someone to idolise.
@Gareth McMahon: you seem to support him enough though
have your say