The Prime Minister of Finland, Sanna Marin, stated that the wish of Finland and Sweden to join NATO remains unchanged. However, the Ministry of Defense of Finland suggests the possibility of non-simultaneous accession to the Alliance.
“We sent a very clear message: we want to join together with Sweden. This is not only because we are good neighbors and good partners. It is also related to very specific issues,” Marin said during one of the discussions at the Munich Security Conference.
She added that the accession of the two Northern European countries is the common interest of all members of the Alliance.
“We have sent a very clear signal and a very clear message to Turkey, and also to Hungary, who have not yet ratified the accession agreement of Sweden and Finland, that we want to join NATO together, and that is in everyoneʼs interest,” Marin said.
At the same time, Finnish Defense Minister Mikko Savola said that Finland will join NATO independently if Turkey blocks Sweden from joining the military alliance.
“No, in that case we will join NATO,” Savola said when asked if the country would stop the process of joining the alliance if Sweden did not get Turkeyʼs approval.
He added that Helsinki would still prefer to join the Alliance at the same time as Stockholm.
- 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 accepted 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 is blocking the entry, arguing that Stockholm and Helsinki have not fulfilled their obligations regarding the extradition of alleged Kurdish extremists.