Finland and Sweden are committed to joining the NATO military alliance simultaneously, the Nordic neighbours' prime ministers said on Friday.
Sweden and Finland launched their bids to join NATO in May in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but ran into objections from Turkey, which accuses the two of harbouring what it says are militants from the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and other groups.
All NATO members except Turkey and Hungary have ratified the applications.
"It is very important for us, of course, that Finland and Sweden would join NATO hand in hand," Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin told reporters, adding that she had discussed Turkey's concerns with its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Prague recently.
"He stated ... that there isn't that many questions when it comes to Finland, (but) some questions when it comes to Sweden," she said.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who took office last week, said during a visit to Helsinki he was not worried that Sweden would be left behind in the process by Finland, and that he would meet with Erdogan in Ankara in the near future.
"It's completely legitimate that Turkey gets confirmation that Sweden is doing what Sweden has committed to do within the framework of the agreement," he said.
Sweden faces a challenge in persuading Turkey to approve its membership in NATO, according to the Nordic country’s new prime minister Ulf Kristersson.
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NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday he would go to Turkey “in the near future” to discuss Finland and Sweden’s nearly completed process to join the military alliance.
The trip to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be a sensitive one, as Turkey is, along with Hungary, the last of NATO’s 30 countries to ratify the accession protocol that would make Finland and Sweden new members.
The process needs to be unanimous. But Erdogan, in early October, warned his country would not ratify the two countries’ memberships until “the promises” they made were kept.
The two Nordic nations earlier this year ditched their longstanding policies of non-alignment, asking to join NATO because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and how it reshuffled Europe’s security.
In June, Turkey, Sweden, and Finland struck a deal which included provisions on extraditions and sharing of information.
It addressed Erdogan’s main demands that Finland and Sweden cease hosting Kurdish militants outlawed in Turkey which he regards as “terrorists,” and hand over Kurds wanted by Ankara.
Stoltenberg, speaking at a media conference after welcoming Romania’s prime minister to NATO headquarters, hailed the “close contact” Stockholm and Helsinki now had with Ankara “at all levels.”
He said: “I will go to… Istanbul to meet with President Erdogan in the near future myself”.
It would follow up on a visit new Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is to make in the coming days.
Stoltenberg also said Hungary “has made it clear” that its parliament would vote on ratification of the accession protocols for Finland and Sweden in the next month or so.
“I’m confident that all allies will ratify the accession protocol,” he said.
The NATO chief added, in a veiled warning to Russia, that security guarantees extended to Finland and Sweden pending their membership process continued to apply.
“If there were any kind of pressure against Finland and Sweden, it is inconceivable that the NATO allies should just stand idly by and not react. So we will react if there is any kind of pressure against Finland and Sweden,” he said.
Sweden’s new prime minister said Tuesday he was open to allowing nuclear weapons on Swedish soil once the country becomes a NATO member, a turnaround from the previous government’s stance.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who took over the reins in Sweden two weeks ago, was speaking in Helsinki at a press conference with his Finnish counterpart Sanna Marin, whose country is applying for membership in the Atlantic alliance together with Sweden.
When asked if the two nations would accept nuclear weapons on their soil, Marin replied: “We shouldn’t put any preconditions… We have decided that we don’t want to close any doors for the future.”
Kristersson agreed.
“You will receive exactly the same answer from me as from the Finnish prime minister,” he said.
“It’s very natural for Sweden and Finland to act very jointly in these matters and have exactly the same formalisation. So I have no other intention than going hand-in-hand also in this sense with Finland,” Kristersson told reporters.
Both Marin and Kristersson however acknowledged that reservations could be negotiated “later.”
