03/19/2023 12:33 (act. 03/19/2023 12:33)
Niinistö did not want to prevent Turkish ratification ©APA/AFP
Finnish President Sauli Niinistö defended the prospect of Finland joining NATO without Sweden. “Should we have refused Turkey’s ratification? That sounds a bit crazy,” Niinistö said after Turkey’s announcement on Friday that it initially only wanted to ratify Finland’s membership but not Sweden’s. “It would have been a very difficult situation if we had said no to Ankara,” said Niinistö.
He has always emphasized that one goes “hand in hand” with Sweden, as long as it is in the hands of the Nordic countries, the Finnish president said. “But ratification of Finland’s entry into NATO is in the hands of Turkey and Hungary.”
In the context of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, Finland and Sweden jointly applied to join the Western Defense Alliance last spring. All NATO members must agree to join.
However, Turkey has so far blocked Sweden from joining. Ankara is demanding the extradition of 120 people Turkey considers “terrorists”. Hungary’s approval of Sweden’s request is still pending. The Hungarian parliament, on the other hand, intends to ratify Finland’s accession on March 27.
In his assessment, Finland’s early accession to NATO would not worsen the security situation in Sweden, Niinistö said in the interview, which was to be broadcast in full by SVT on Sunday night. He doesn’t expect it to be long before Sweden succeeds Finland in NATO.