Despite overtures from Turkey, Finland assured Monday that it would not wish to join NATO without its neighbor Sweden, with whom it still hopes to join before the next summit of the alliance in July.
The sharp diplomatic tensions between Stockholm and Ankara in recent weeks, caused by several incidents including a burned Koran near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, have raised questions about the way forward for Finland.
"Our great wish was and still is to join with Sweden," said Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, assuring that the Finnish position was "unchanged".
"I still see the NATO summit in Vilnius (July 11-12) as an important step, where I hope to see our two NATO member countries at the latest," he said during the meeting. 'a press conference.
Turkey has been blocking, since their announcement last May, the historic candidacies of the two Nordic countries to join the Western alliance, a direct consequence of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Its president Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted for the first time on Sunday that Turkey could approve Finland's candidacy for NATO, without doing the same for Sweden, accused of harming Turkish interests.
"If necessary, we can give a different message about Finland. Sweden will be shocked when we give a different message about Finland," said the Turkish head of state.
These declarations "show that there is a will of Turkey to move forward quickly on the process (of joining) NATO if necessary" concerning the Finnish candidacy, underlined Mr. Haavisto.
But after contacts since Sunday with his Swedish and Turkish counterparts, he reaffirmed the wish that Turkey ratify the two candidacies "together".
Turkey had put a stop to Swedish-Finnish membership on January 24, by postponing indefinitely a tripartite meeting intended to remove Ankara's objections to their candidacy.
The Turkish president had already warned the day before that Sweden, already accused by Turkey of harboring Kurdish "terrorists", could no longer count on the "support" of Ankara, after a far-right activist burned a copy of the Koran in Stockholm.
Stockholm had deplored an act "deeply disrespectful" and expressed its "sympathy" to Muslims by stressing that the Swedish Constitution prevented from prohibiting this type of action.
The author of the book-burning, Swedish-Danish anti-Islam extremist Rasmus Paludan, has since burned more Qurans in Copenhagen, posting his intention to do it again every week as long as Turkey does not let Sweden into the NATO.
The incident concerning the holy book of Islam followed another a few days earlier, this time provoked by pro-Kurdish militants.
In mid-January, a support group for Kurdish armed groups in Syria, the Rojava Committee, hung a mannequin bearing the image of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in front of Stockholm City Hall, also arousing indignation from Ankara.
How long will Finland wait for its neighbor Sweden? The two countries, which were one until 1809, are extremely close diplomatically and militarily.
"We have the patience and we also have perhaps good patience because several countries have given us security assurances," Haavisto said.
During the candidacy period, Sweden and Finland do not benefit from Article 5 on mutual protection within NATO, but several major Western powers, including the United States, have pledged their assistance in case of danger. .
Russian military difficulties in Ukraine have also removed the threat to Finland, which shares a 1,300 kilometer border with Russia.
If he displayed his solidarity with Stockholm on Monday, the Finnish minister had nevertheless publicly mentioned last week the possibility that his country would have to join alone if Sweden were definitively blocked, even if a joint membership remained the only scenario envisaged.
Among the 30 members of NATO, whose ratification is essential, only Turkey and Hungary have not yet approved the two candidacies.
Budapest says for its part that it does not want to block their entry.
01/30/2023 18:40:03 - Helsinki (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
