Erdogan gives Türkiye's blessing to Finland's NATO bid

REGION  17 March 2023 - 21:00

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Türkiye will begin the process of ratifying Finland's NATO membership.

Sweden's application would have to wait for further talks, he said, according to the National News.

Almost simultaneously, fellow holdout, Hungary said it would hold a vote on Finland's bid on March 27.

Announcing the breakthrough after 10 months of negotiations, Mr Erdogan said Finland had taken “authentic and concrete steps” to address Turkish security grievances.

“NATO will become stronger with Finland's membership, and I believe it will play an active role in maintaining global security and stability,” he said.

Türkiye and Hungary are the last NATO members to give their verdict and their moves pave the way for Finland to become the 31st member of the military alliance.

Speaking alongside Mr Erdogan on a visit to Ankara, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said it was “very good to hear this news”.

But he said Finnish membership of Nato “is not complete without Sweden” because of their shared security interests.

Finland's bid could be approved before the Turkish elections in May, while Sweden is not expecting a verdict before then.

Hungary's ruling party will vote “unanimously yes” on Finland but “decide later” on Sweden, said its parliamentary leader Mate Kocsis.

Meanwhile, Erdogan said that Türkiye still does not support Sweden's accession to NATO, but is ready to continue talks.

"We cannot support Sweden’s bid to join NATO because it refused to extradite 120 terrorists. We will continue to engage in dialogue with them on this process, but it depends entirely on Stockholm's steps," TASS cites Erdogan as saying.

Caliber.Az