Finland’s president defends joining Nato without Sweden
- Both Finland and Sweden applied to become Nato members in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022
- Turkey on Friday lifted its block on the entry of Finland into Nato, but the timeline for Sweden’s entry remains in doubt
President Sauli Niinisto has defended Finland’s decision to proceed with accession to Nato without its neighbour Sweden on the grounds that rejecting Turkey’s pending ratification of its candidacy would have been problematic.
“Should we have rejected ratification by Turkey? That sounds a bit crazy,” Niinisto said in an interview with Sweden’s SVT national public service that was broadcast in full on Saturday evening.
“It would have been a very problematic situation, if we had said no to Ankara,” he added.
Niinisto’s comments came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Friday that his government would begin the ratification process for Finland.
While he had always emphasised that Finland would go “hand in hand” with Sweden to the extent that the decision was theirs to make, ratification ultimately lay with Turkey and Hungary, the two Nato member still to ratify the applications, Niinisto said.
After decades of neutrality, the two Nordic countries applied to join the transatlantic defence alliance last May following Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine. They made clear that they wished to join together.
