HELSINKI (AP) — The Swedish and Finnish foreign ministers reiterated in separate interviews published Saturday that the two Nordic countries’ progress toward joining NATO The pact went ahead despite the Turkish president saying Sweden should not expect his country to ratify its membership.
In an interview with Swedish newspaper Expressen, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Bürstrom admitted that Turkey was outraged by the recent demonstrations and the burning of the Koran The event in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm complicated Sweden’s NATO membership.
To admit a new country, NATO needs the unanimous consent of its existing members, Turkey being one of them. Still, Billström said the Swedish government still hopes to join NATO this summer.
“Needless to say, we are looking forward to the (NATO) summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, in July,” Bilstrom told Express when asked about the timetable for Sweden’s possible accession.
Hungary and Turkey are the only countries in the 30-member Western military alliance that have not signed the application from Finland and Sweden.
Although Hungary had pledged to do so in February, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday that a planned meeting in Brussels to discuss Sweden and Finland joining NATO had been postponed.
Cavusoglu said such a meeting would be “meaningless” after last weekend’s events in Stockholm.These included protests by pro-Kurdish groups and the burning of Islam’s holy book outside the Turkish embassy Started by Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan.
Expressen quoted Billström on Saturday as saying that the work of getting Sweden and Finland into NATO was not on hold.
“The NATO process is not suspended. The (Swedish) government continues to implement the memorandum of understanding between Sweden, Finland and Turkey. But it is up to Turkey to decide when to ratify it,” he said.
Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto echoed his Swedish counterpart and said the two countries plan to continue their journey towards NATO together.
“In my opinion, the road to NATO is not closed for any one country,” Haavisto said in an interview with Finnish public broadcaster YLE.
Ankara’s announcement to temporarily postpone three-way talks with Finland, Sweden and Turkey “extends time on behalf of the Turkish side and can revisit the matter after the Turkish general elections scheduled for May 14,” he said.
Haavisto said he hoped the time frame would be to finalize the membership of Finland and Sweden at a NATO summit in Lithuania on July 11-12.
