Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden decided to turn the page on their policy of military neutrality by applying to join NATO in mid-May 2022.

Twenty-eight of the 30 Alliance members have ratified the membership of the two Nordic countries.

Approval is expected from two countries: Hungary, which is more ambivalent towards Russia, and Turkey, which is mediating the conflict in Ukraine and has a long-standing rivalry with Sweden, mainly due to the presence of Kurds on Swedish soil. .

Until recently, Helsinki has declared its desire to join NATO together with Stockholm. But as the crisis between Turkey and Sweden worsened, the situation changed.

Even Stoltenberg admitted in early February that the most important thing is not that the two countries join NATO together, but that they join as soon as possible.

Finland and Sweden separately

On Monday, Turkey confirmed that it could separate Finland’s accession from Sweden’s. “We could separate the Swedish accession process from the Finnish accession process,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.

The adoption of the bill by the Finnish parliament does not mean that Helsinki will automatically join NATO, having received the approval of Turkey and Hungary. But he sets clear deadlines: after the bill is passed, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto has three months to sign it.

Niinistö has already stated that he will do so “as soon as he gets through the parliament”. “If there are practical reasons, I can wait (…), but not after the April 2 elections.” The accession document must then be sent to Washington “within a few weeks at the latest,” explained Tuomas Poisti, head of the body that reviews the government’s legitimacy.

According to a survey published in early February, the majority of Finns (53%) want their country to join NATO independently of Sweden.

Source: AFP, APE-MPE.