​Finland should consider joining NATO without Sweden, its foreign minister said on Tuesday, the first time since Turkey rejected Ankara’s green light for a Swedish candidacy, France Presse and Reuters reported, citing Agerpres.

Foreign Ministers of Finland and Sweden with Jens StoltenbergPhoto: EyePress News / Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia Images

Joining the two Nordic countries together remains the “first option” but “obviously we have to assess the situation if something has happened which means that in the long term Sweden cannot go any further,” said foreign minister Pekka Haavisto. on television, YLE publishes, judging, however, that “it is too early to take a position”.

Among other things, Haavisto noted that a several-week pause is needed in the negotiations between Finland, Sweden and Turkey regarding the plans of the two Scandinavian countries to join the NATO military alliance.

“There needs to be a pause before we go back to the trilateral talks and see where we are (…) given the current situation, so no conclusions should be drawn yet,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

“I think it will be a few weeks off,” he added.

Turkish President Recep Erdogan said on Monday that Sweden should not be expected to support his country’s NATO membership after a protest outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm at the weekend that included the burning of a copy of the Koran.

Finland talks about Sweden’s “obstacles” to NATO membership

The burning of a Koran by a right-wing extremist during a police-sanctioned demonstration outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm on Saturday drew sharp protests from Ankara and the Muslim world.

Erdogan said Sweden could no longer count on Ankara’s “support” after the incident, which came on top of another caused by a video by pro-Kurdish militants in mid-January.

These protests are an “obstacle” for NATO candidates and “the protesters are playing with the security of Finland and Sweden,” Haavisto complained on Tuesday.

“My conclusion is that there will be a delay (for the Turkish green wave) that will certainly last until the Turkish elections in mid-May,” he added.

Unlike the case with Sweden, Turkey has shown in recent months that it has no major objections to Finland joining NATO.

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