Finland working to convince Turkey to resume NATO bid talks, foreign minister says

Finland’s foreign minister says he’s working to convince Turkey to resume talks to ratify his country’s bid to join the NATO alliance along with Sweden, despite stalled negotiations.

“We see all the advantages of both of us becoming members,” Pekka Haavisto told CBC News Network’s Rosemary Barton Live.

“Sooner the better.”

Twenty-eight of NATO’s 30 members have ratified both Sweden and Finland’s requests for membership after the two Scandinavian countries submitted formal applications in May. Canada was the first to ratify the requests.

But Turkey and Hungary have yet to approve the bids to join the Western military alliance.

The Turkish government has said Sweden in particular needs to crack down on exiled members of Kurdish and other groups that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan considers terrorists.

Last month a far-right politician burned a copy of the Qur’an in Stockholm and separate pro-Kurdish demonstrations were held in the capital, further inflaming tensions. 

The Swedish government has tried to distance itself from the incident, while insisting that such protests are allowed under the country’s freedom of speech.

Trilateral talks between Turkey, Finland and Sweden have now broken off. Haavisto said he continues to push his Turkish counterpart to return to the table.

“You can see how easy it is to derail a serious security process with this kind of action,” Haavisto said.

“Of course we are trying to convince Turkey that it’s also in their interest, that NATO would be stronger in these circumstances when we have unfortunate Russian aggression and war in Europe.”

Despite the stalled negotiations, Haavisto said his country still sees benefits in joining the alliance with its Nordic neighbour.

“When we look at the security around the Baltic Sea region, we need both Finland and Sweden for improved security and we have a very strong not only history, but also bilateral military co-operation, defence co-operation and so forth,’ he said.

“There’s been certain conditions and we feel that we have fulfilled those conditions and Sweden has. So we are of course looking that Turkey could now advance.”

Haavisto said he had been hoping to iron out the ratification before Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections this May.

“Unfortunately there is now the delay on this timetable,” he said.