The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland Pekka Haavisto informed that a time-out for several weeks is necessary in the negotiations between Finland and Sweden with Turkey regarding their accession to NATO.
In an interview with Reuters, he said that the Swedish protests are holding back Finlandʼs accession to NATO.
"The process is delayed, after all, until the elections in Turkey, that is, until mid-May. It is difficult to say how events will develop after that. Yesterday I spoke with the Turkish Foreign Minister and I got the impression that the religious protests caused shock and anger on the Turkish side. This will affect their decision," noted the head of the Finnish Foreign Ministry.
In turn, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden Tobias Bilström told the media on Tuesday that he is in contact with Finland to find out about his colleagueʼs statement.
Later, Haavisto added that both countries are making progress in the agreements and he welcomes the joint application to NATO.
- In May 2022, Sweden and Finland renounced their traditional neutrality against the backdrop of Russiaʼs military invasion of Ukraine and submitted applications to join NATO. To date, among all the members of the alliance, only Hungary and Turkey have not agreed to their applications. The Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán promised a positive decision of the parliament in this regard "soon". At the same time, Turkey blocks the entry, arguing that Stockholm and Helsinki have not fulfilled their obligations regarding the extradition of alleged Kurdish extremists.