Stoltenberg for rapid admission: NATO open to separate accession of Finland and Sweden

Actually, Stockholm and Helsinki affirm that they want to join NATO together.

Stoltenberg for rapid admission: NATO open to separate accession of Finland and Sweden

Actually, Stockholm and Helsinki affirm that they want to join NATO together. However, since Turkey is opposed to Sweden being admitted, Stoltenberg surprisingly considers initially only wanting to admit the neighboring country. One reason could be strategic considerations.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg surprisingly signaled his openness to Sweden and Finland joining NATO separately. The most important question is not whether Turkey will ratify the accession protocols of the two countries together, Stoltenberg said at a defense ministers' meeting in Brussels when asked whether it would be acceptable for NATO that Turkey initially only agreed to Finland's accession. It is crucial that both countries become official NATO members "as soon as possible".

A possible background to Stoltenberg's statements is the current debate in Finland about whether the country should initially join alone in the event of a continuing Turkish blockade against Sweden joining the alliance. NATO circles said that Finland's admission was strategically more important than Sweden's. Unlike Sweden, Finland shares a border with Russia. It is around 1340 kilometers long.

Allied member Turkey's continued refusal to clear the way for Finland and Sweden to join NATO has fueled bad mood within the alliance for months. The two countries had applied for alliance membership in mid-May as a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.

Turkey has so far refused to ratify the so-called accession protocols. The country justifies its stance primarily with Sweden's alleged support of "terrorist organizations" such as the banned Kurdish Workers' Party PKK.

At the end of June it initially looked as if the dispute over Sweden and Finland's alleged support for "terrorist organizations" had been settled. In the meantime, however, Turkey has taken the position that agreements made at the time have not yet been fulfilled, particularly by Sweden.

The governments in Stockholm and Helsinki have recently asserted several times that their goal is still to be admitted to NATO at the same time. During a visit to Helsinki on Monday, Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also spoke out in favor of the two Nordic countries becoming members together.