Turkey prevents Finland and Sweden from joining NATO: NPR
Foreign Minister Antony Blinken hosted his counterparts from Finland and Sweden, which are still trying to get Turkey on board with their NATO aspirations.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Finland and Sweden are still waiting to join NATO. The US hoped it would now be in to show a united front against Russia’s war in Ukraine, but Turkey has held up its membership and sought concessions, including a tougher line against Kurdish militants. NPR’s Michele Kelemen reports.
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: Foreign Minister Antony Blinken says the war in Ukraine has been a strategic failure for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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ANTONY BLINKEN: We know he has failed to weaken our alliance. In fact, he has only made NATO stronger and bigger.
KELEMEN: Yes, soon it will be bigger. Secretary Blinken hosted his counterparts from Finland and Sweden and said that these countries are ready to bring their forces to the NATO alliance. Hungary’s parliament still needs to ratify its membership and plans to do so in February. Turkey is the big hold and has not yet given NATO a clear timeline. Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told NPR outside the State Department today that he hopes Turkey won’t postpone this until after their election next year.
PEKKA HAAVISTO: When we have a war in Europe, it is very important that things can be done quite quickly and also that NATO’s open door policy prevails, that it exists even in times of crisis, and especially when there are two members, Finland and Sweden, which in my opinion very well fulfills NATO’s criteria.
KELEMEN: They also meet Turkey’s requirements. Sweden recently extradited a Kurdish man who allegedly has links to the militant group PKK. And Sweden’s foreign minister, Tobias Billström, says that his country has taken other steps established in an agreement with Turkey.
TOBIAS BILLSTROM: We have done a lot. And we believe that we are very close to the point where we could say that all the conditions are met and then the Turkish parliament will be able to ratify our accession protocol, and we will become NATO members.
KELEMEN: He plans to travel to Ankara soon. The NATO Secretary General was there recently and said that Finland and Sweden have done their part. And he warned that finalizing their membership is important to prevent misunderstandings in Moscow.
Michele Kelemen, NPR News, State Department.
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