Turkey will proceed with the ratification of Finland’s membership in NATO, hastening a major enhancement of the trans-Atlantic alliance despite a diplomatic logjam that still obstructs Sweden’s inclusion.
"We have decided to start the protocol of Finland's accession to NATO in our Parliament," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday.
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That decision represents one of the final steps in a watershed for Finland and European security policy, as Helsinki abandoned a historic posture of neutrality last year after Russia launched a campaign to overthrow the Ukrainian government. That shift will see one of Europe’s largest militaries incorporated into NATO, but Erdogan’s announcement represents a mixed bag for trans-Atlantic officials as he continues to stonewall Sweden’s application.
“Although we welcome today’s decision made by Türkiye to formally ratify Finland’s accession protocol, Türkiye’s decision to decouple Finland’s NATO membership bid from Sweden is disappointing and unnecessary,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), the co-chairs of the Senate NATO Observer Group, said Friday. “Sweden and Finland will bring unique capabilities to the Alliance that will better enable us to meet today’s challenges and tomorrow’s threats.”
Sweden and Finland applied in tandem for NATO membership last year on what they hoped would be a fast-tracked accession process. Erdogan threw a spanner into those hopes. He insisted that they lift arms embargoes imposed in response to his attack on the Syrian Kurdish militants that have worked with the U.S.-led international coalition to dismantle the Islamic State, and further demanded that they extradite Turkish Kurds whom Erdogan regards as linked to a Turkish separatist group that has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
Finland has found it easier to mollify Erdogan than Sweden, even though the countries hammered out a “trilateral memorandum” with the assistance of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that the allies hoped would resolve the controversies.
“The most important thing is that both Finland and Sweden become full members of NATO quickly, not whether they join at exactly the same time,” Stoltenberg said Friday. “Last year’s decision to invite both Finland and Sweden has fundamentally strengthened their relationship with NATO. As a consequence, their security is much enhanced.”
Hungary has joined Turkey in hesitating to ratify the Nordic applications. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban recently linked that delay to a separate dispute over Hungary’s access to European Union funds that Brussels has frozen, citing corruption in Budapest. Sweden and Finland are members of the EU, and Orban has implied that he will not approve their applications if they back the EU censure.
“The Senate NATO Observer Group is concerned by Hungary’s decision to delay the vote ratifying Sweden and Finland’s NATO accession bid,” Shaheen and Tillis said. “We call on Hungary and Türkiye to fulfill their obligations to the transatlantic family and vote on both accession protocols without further delay. In particular, Hungary should stop exploiting Finland and Sweden’s NATO accession protocols to its own benefit.”
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Neither Sweden nor Finland can invoke the Article 5 provision that requires the allies to treat an attack on all — unless and until their applications are ratified by both Hungary and Turkey. Stoltenberg, for his part, touted the benefits of their inclusion and emphasized that NATO allies would support either country in a crisis.
“They are sitting around NATO’s table, integrating into our political and military structures, exercising more with Allies,” he said. “Both countries have received bilateral security assurances from many NATO countries, including the US, UK, Germany, and France. So it is inconceivable that NATO would not respond should either Finland or Sweden come under attack. Their security matters to NATO.”