Helsinki: Finland’s foreign minister said Tuesday that the country could join NATO without neighboring Sweden if Turkey continues to block their joint bid to join the military alliance.
Pekka Haavisto later backtracked, but his comments were the first time a senior government official from either Nordic country appeared to raise doubts about NATO’s joint club at a time when the alliance seeks to provide a united front opposed to Russia’s war in Ukraine. .
Sweden and Finland rushed to apply for the NATO club after Moscow’s invasion, abandoning their long-standing policy of non-alignment. His club is asking for approval from all existing NATO members, adding that Turkey, which has so far blocked expansion, said Sweden specifically will have to crack down on exiled Kurdish militants and their supporters.
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Sweden not to wait for his candidacy following weekend protests in Stockholm by an anti-Islam activist and pro-Kurdish groups.
Asked a day later if it still made sense for Finland to continue with the Swedes, Haavisto told broadcaster YLE that his country “assesses the scenario if it turns out that Sweden’s candidacy is blocked for a long time. “
Haavisto later told reporters in parliament that his comment was “inaccurate” and that Finland’s ambition to join NATO with Sweden remained unchanged.
He said he had spoken to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who under pressure in Haavisto that the army bloc would like the two nations to register simultaneously.
“But of course there have been considerations within NATO about how the (recent) incidents in Sweden will be synchronized,” Haavisto said.
Until now, Sweden and Finland had pledged to join the alliance.
“This is the first crack in the hitherto quite impressive unity between Sweden and Finland,” said Paul Levin, director of Stockholm University’s Institute of Turkish Studies. “Finland is lately an innocent victim of the continuous provocations of Swedish groups. “to be a member of NATO, through Sweden’s very liberal free speech laws. If Turkey persists in blocking accession, I suspect that Finland will at some point approve it alone.
Matti Pesu, a researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, said Haavisto’s comment is “the first public sign that there is a plan B if Sweden’s application for the NATO club is frozen any longer. “
Under pressure that Finland gives priority to joining the alliance with Sweden.
“Finland deserves other opportunities only if there is a serious option of a significant delay in Sweden’s application to NATO and only if NATO allies welcome Finland’s accession without Sweden,” he said.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said he “understands the frustration many Finns feel” at being admitted to the alliance, but called for calm and suggested Swedes opposed to the NATO club “realise the gravity” of the security situation.
“There are forces inside and outside Sweden that need to prevent Sweden from becoming a member of NATO,” he told reporters in Stockholm. “And it is in this context that we see that there are provocateurs who need to hurt Sweden. “relations with other countries, which delays Sweden’s accession to NATO. “
In a memorandum of understanding signed through the 3 countries at a NATO summit last year, Sweden and Finland pledged not to Kurdish militant teams and to lift arms embargoes imposed on Turkey after its incursion into northern Syria in 2019.
Pro-Kurdish and anti-Turkish protests in Stockholm confused the process. On Saturday, a Danish far-right activist held a protest outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, where he burned the Koran, Islam’s holy book. Another pro-Kurdish demonstration took place later on Saturday in the Swedish capital.
The Swedish government has tried to distance itself from the protests, while insisting that protests are conducted through freedom of expression.
“It’s perfectly legal to galvanize if you do. But it can also have consequences,” Kristersson said.
Turkey responded angrily to the protests, canceling a planned stop in Ankara through Sweden’s defense minister. The protests took place outside Swedish diplomatic missions in Turkey, prompting the Swedish embassy in Ankara to close its doors to the public on Tuesday.
Erdogan criticized the Swedish government for allowing the burning of the Koran.
“It is transparent that those who allowed such infamy to occur in front of our embassy can no longer expect any charity from us in relation to their application for NATO membership,” he said.
He also criticized the pro-Kurdish demonstration, accusing Sweden of allowing “terrorist organizations to become savages in its avenues and streets. “He said that if Sweden doesn’t show respect for Turkey or Muslims, then “you won’t see any of our NATO problems.
Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, who visited Ukraine on Tuesday, said he expected some progress in advancing Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14.
Turkey and Hungary are the only NATO members that have yet ratified the accession of Finland and Sweden.
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Jan M. Olsen contributed to this from Copenhagen, Denmark.
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