Finland says it will stand by Sweden in the NATO process
Author: Essi Lehto
HELSINKI (Reuters) – Finland is sticking to its plan to join NATO at the same time as its Nordic neighbor Sweden and hopes to do so by July at the latest, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Monday.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan announced on Sunday that Ankara could agree to Finland joining NATO before Sweden amid rising tensions with Stockholm, and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu made a similar statement on Monday.
– Our strong hope is still to join NATO together with Sweden, Haavisto said at a press conference in Helsinki.
Last week, Turkey suspended NATO talks with Sweden and Finland over the Stockholm protests, which included the burning of the Koran.
Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership last year after the Russian attack on Ukraine and need the approval of all member countries to join. Turkey and Hungary have not yet ratified the membership of the Nordic countries.
“I still see the NATO summit in Vilnius in July as an important milestone, as I hope that both countries will be accepted as NATO members at the latest,” Haavisto said.
(Reporting by Essi Lehto in Helsinki, additional reporting by Simon Johnson in Stockholm, editor Terje Solsvik and Christina Fincher)