Finnish PM Urges Two Holdout Countries To Swiftly Approve Sweden, Finland NATO Bids

On Tuesday Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin appealed directly to holdout countries Hungary and Turkey to approve the Finnish and Swedish NATO applications, a process which has for months been at standstill especially over Turkish accusations that both countries have supported Kurdish outlaw “terrorist” groups.

Marin pointed out that the commitments of the trilateral deal which Turkey’s leadership previously agreed to in the early summer are not fulfilled yet. “All eyes are now on Hungary and Turkey. We are waiting for these countries to ratify our applications. I think it would be important that this would happen preferably sooner than later,” Marin told a joint news conference with other Scandinavian leaders.

So far, 28 NATO member countries have ratified their applications, with the only two which haven’t done so among the 30-member bloc being Turkey and Hungary. 

The June trilateral summit agreed to implement Turkey’s requirements designed to ensure that Sweden and Finland would take steps to distance their countries from individuals and groups Turkey deems terrorists. This has included a demand to extradite wanted individuals back to Turkey.

Spokesman for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Ömer Çelik suggested on Monday that Finland and Sweden have yet to implement what was agreed upon earlier in Madrid at the trilateral summit. 

Om Monday Çelik said: “We do not find statements sufficient until they are implemented and materialized. Because we have heard a lot of words, striking statements, very elegant and very aesthetic words from our European friends, but still we witnessed actions of terrorist organizations on the streets of those countries as well as terrorist propaganda on their televisions.”

Finland had long maintained historic neutrality regarding NATO membership, but declared within months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that this marked a “turning point” for the world, saying that relations between Helsinki and Moscow could never go back to the way they were before.