Foreign Policy | Blinken’s visit to Turkey is clearly related to the discussion of the NATO ratification schedule, Haavisto estimates

Policy|Foreign policy

of the United States of the foreign minister by Antony Blinken the visit to Turkey is clearly accompanied by a discussion about the time frame in which Turkey would be ready to ratify Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership. This is what the foreign minister thinks Pekka Haavisto (green), which, however, so far could not tell the time for the discussions between Turkey, Sweden and Finland in Brussels.

Haavisto commented on the matter at his press conference on the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said in the morning when he arrived at the meeting that his Turkish colleague Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said that Turkey is again ready for talks with Sweden. A news channel close to the Turkish government A Haber on the other hand, said that Turkey would continue the tripartite negotiations with Finland and Sweden.

Foreign ministers upon arriving at the meeting, Haavisto commented on the situation in Moldova, saying that the situation in Ukraine would also be affected if, for some reason, Moldova collapsed economically or there was a serious security threat to the country.

Russia has gambled with Moldova’s energy supplies, as a result of which the price of energy has increased manifold. According to the worst news, Russia would also have plotted a change of power in Moldova, which has been denied by Moscow.

Read more: The anxious Moldovan president gathered sympathy in Munich

“Dark clouds are now hovering over Moldova both in terms of security and economy. And it is important that the methods found in the European Union help,” Haavisto said.

Moldova became an EU candidate country last summer at the same time as Ukraine. EU foreign ministers are also scheduled to have a lunch with the Moldovan foreign minister Nicu Popescu with.

Presently In the EU, the tenth package of sanctions against Russia is being prepared, which Haavisto expects will also come up in the discussion. No decisions on the matter are expected now, but the permanent representatives of the countries are trying to reach an agreement on the whole this week.

Among other things, the chairman of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen has stated that the next sanctions package is due to be completed by the anniversary of the expansion of the war of aggression, i.e. by Friday.

In particular, Hungary has seen several controversial exits in the media. Information has leaked out, among other things, that Hungary would have liked to remove ten names from the sanctions list.

Haavisto said he could not reveal the details of the conversation yet.

“In general, the final result in these sanctions package preparations has been that a final result has been reached. And that’s why I think it’s important to influence the fact that an agreement is finally found with Hungary.”

Up the issue of whether, for example, Russian nuclear fuel should be sanctioned because of a war of aggression has also been raised. In Finland, the energy company Fortum currently uses Russian nuclear fuel at the Loviisa nuclear power plant.

Fortum’s warehouses are well filled, and the company has also agreed to supply fuel with the American Westinghouse Electric Company for security reasons, but it is estimated that it will still take years to put the agreement into practice.

Haavisto stated that fuel issues are important for several countries.

“That way, you can’t shoot yourself in the foot by completely interrupting the fuel service. The European energy situation is such that it must be seen that this transitional phase will be successful.”

According to Haavisto, over time it will be possible to switch to other suppliers as well.

Sanctions related to Russian nuclear power have been dismissed in discussions before, but official sources interviewed by STT at the beginning of February did not believe in the possibility of their success this time either.

One its own question is the evasion of sanctions that have already been imposed. According to Haavisto, Finland has taken the initiative in this regard.

“Finland has taken the initiative to pay attention to the circulation of these previous sanctions. There are some countries through which trade has clearly increased, which means that sanctions are practically being circumvented.”

Research Manager Iikka Korhonen From Bofit, the Bank of Finland’s research institute for emerging economies tweeted on Friday that exports from Turkey to Russia increased by 122 percent in December compared to the same time last year, and from Kazakhstan by 48 percent.