Turkey and Hungary are the only two NATO members that have not yet ratified Finland and Sweden to join.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested that Ankara soon ratify Finland’s application to join NATO and allow the country to join the military alliance separately from Sweden.
Fearing a Russian invasion of Ukraine a year earlier, Finland and Sweden abandoned decades of non-alignment and applied to join the coalition. All 30 NATO members have approved their applications, and 28 have ratified their accession. Only Turkey and Hungary have not yet done so.
The Turkish government accuses Sweden of being too lenient with groups it considers “terrorist” organizations and existential threats, including Kurdish groups.
Turkish officials were also outraged by the series of demonstrations in Sweden, including one by an anti-Islam activist who burned a Quran outside the Turkish embassy.
But Ankara said it had fewer problems with Finland’s membership.
Asked by reporters on Wednesday whether Turkey could ratify Finland’s membership after Finnish President Sauli Niinisto’s visit this week, Erdogan replied: “God willing, if for the best.”
“Whatever the operation is, the operation will succeed,” Erdogan said. “We will do our part. We will keep our word. We will meet with the president on Friday and keep our word.”
Niinisto is scheduled to arrive in Turkey, accompanied by Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, on Thursday, where the two officials will tour areas affected by the devastating earthquakes that hit parts of Turkey and Syria last month.
Niinisto and Erdogan are scheduled to meet in Istanbul on Friday.
Reuters quoted the Finnish president as saying that he expected Erdogan to confirm Turkey’s support.
“We learned that when Turkish President Erdogan, for his part, decided to ratify Finland’s membership in NATO, he wanted to fulfill his promise as the president’s boss,” Niinisto said in an email to Reuters.
Meanwhile, two Turkish officials who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity echoed the Turkish president’s positive tone.
“It is very likely that the necessary step for Finland’s NATO membership has been completed before [parliament] “It closes and the elections take place,” said one of the officials.
The Turkish parliamentary session is scheduled to end in mid-April, before the parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for May 14.
“Positive messages will be sent to the President of Finland during his visit,” said the second official.
The United States and other NATO countries hope that the two northern countries will become members of the alliance at the NATO summit scheduled for July 11 in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania.
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