The Finnish president defends a possible NATO membership without Sweden

Finnish President Sauli Niinistö has defended Finland’s prospect of joining NATO without Sweden. “Should we have refused Turkey’s ratification? That sounds a bit crazy,” Niinistö said after Turkey’s announcement on Friday that it initially only wanted to ratify Finland’s accession, but not Sweden’s. “It would have been a very difficult situation if we had said no to Ankara,” said Niinistö.

The Finnish president said he had always emphasized going “hand in hand” with Sweden, insofar as it was in the hands of the Scandinavian countries. “But the ratification of Finland’s NATO membership is in the hands of Turkey and Hungary.”

Against the backdrop of Russia’s offensive war in Ukraine, Finland and Sweden jointly applied for membership in the Western Defense Alliance last spring. All NATO members must agree to join.

However, Turkey has so far blocked Sweden’s accession. Ankara is demanding that the country extradite 120 people whom Turkey considers “terrorists”. Hungary’s approval of Sweden’s application is still pending. The Hungarian parliament, on the other hand, plans to ratify Finland’s accession on March 27.

According to him, Finland’s previous NATO membership would not worsen the security situation in Sweden, Niinistö said in the interview, which would be broadcast in full on SVT on Sunday evening. He hopes it won’t be long before Sweden succeeds Finland in NATO. (sda/dpa)