It escalates more and more tensions between Sweden-Finland and Turkey against the backdrop of the accession of the two countries to NATOthe conditions of which were set by Ankara from the very beginning.

After the protests of the previous days, when Swedish protesters burned the Koran, angering Ankara and triggering counter-demonstrations in Turkey, Erdogan said yesterday that he “does not see” the possibility of Sweden joining the North Atlantic alliance..

In the same time, this year NATO Jens Stoltenberg urged Turkey not to create obstacles to the country’s accession to NATO.

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto took office today.who, among other things, said that he needed a two-week break (a time-out, as he characteristically said) in negotiations with Ankara on the accession of his country and Sweden to NATO, adding that in order to continue negotiations, it is good when the perch that was raised settles .

At the same time, Haavisto said that he talked with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, noting that Turkey is in the pre-election period, which slows down the development of events with the entry of the two countries into NATO. As the Finnish Foreign Minister said, “We hope that the process will proceed smoothly”, even with any delay.

On the integration table without Sweden?

However, in two separate interviews with the Finnish network YLE and Reuters, he revealed two different positions as to whether Helsinki would seek a unilateral process of joining the Alliance, i.e. without Sweden.

In his statements to the Finnish medialeft open the possibility of further consideration of Sweden’s membership and problems that might arise in due course, hinting that Helsinki might consider moving forward without Stockholm.

However, he switched to another line of communication with Reuters.noting that he does not consider it necessary to continue negotiations only for his country, without Sweden.

Some time later, according to Reuters, Pekka Haavisto contacted his Swedish counterpart, confirming that two countries will remain firm in the process of joining NATO simultaneously. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland added that both countries will do everything possible for a successful outcome of the issue.

Source: Reuters, YLE, Bloomberg, AFP.