NATO | Is Finland’s NATO application moving forward? There will be a lot of pressure on the NATO summit starting on Tuesday

NATO countries Heads of State will meet this week as the NATO Summit in Spain on 28-30 June.

The meeting will approve the new long-term policy paper of the military alliance, ie the strategic concept. It will guide NATO’s military and political development for about a decade to come. In addition, the meeting is expected to decide, among other things, on strengthening the defense of Eastern Europe as a result of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.

The delegation from Finland to the NATO Summit will be led by the President Sauli Niinistö. Among the ministers, the members of the delegation are the Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto (green) and Minister of Defense Antti Kaikkonen (middle). Prime minister Sanna Marin (sd) is not a member of the delegation.

Yet a few weeks ago, it was hoped that Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership would be celebrated at the Madrid Summit. The countries submitted their applications for membership in May, but the process has not been able to move forward due to opposition from Turkey.

Turkey is the only NATO country to be holding back the start of membership negotiations.

Turkey has accused Finland and Sweden of, among other things, protecting terrorism and wanted relief for arms exports. However, experts have estimated that, in reality, Turkey’s message is clearly addressed to NATO as a whole, not just Finland and Sweden.

Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership is not on the official agenda for the summit starting on Tuesday, but the world is closely monitoring whether the process is moving forward.

Last week, on Monday, Finland, Sweden and Turkey held talks on Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership in Brussels. The Secretary General of NATO was also present Jens Stoltenberg.

After the talks, Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said at a news conferencethat it will hardly be ready before the Madrid Summit. However, he said that Finland is ready to continue the negotiations “on a very fast schedule, if it seems necessary and necessary”.

Also President Niinistö anticipates last Tuesdaythat it may be difficult to reach a consensus on the promotion of NATO membership applications by the time of the NATO meeting.

Niinistö considers it a step forward that the differences have been discussed with Turkey at all and under the auspices of NATO, and that it has been decided to continue discussions.

“My impression is that serious discussions are taking place, and hopefully we will all end up with a positive outcome,” Niinistö said.

On Thursday, the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlulta was asked at the press conference at what stage the discussions on the progress of NATO and Sweden’s NATO membership are.

“We have our disagreements, and there are certain things where we’ve gotten to the same page,” he said.

Çavuşoğlu reiterated that the expectations of Turkey and the Turks are clear.

“If these two countries want to become members of NATO, there are certain things they need to meet. We understand their security concerns, but if they want to be members, then the security concerns of NATO members should be addressed. ”

He indicated that the issue would be discussed at the Madrid meeting.

Madrid The summit has not been the official deadline for the progress of Finland’s and Sweden’s membership. However, it puts pressure on a solution.

Prime Minister Sanna Marin warned recentlythat if no solution is found by the time of the meeting, there is a risk that the situation will “freeze”.

According to researchers interviewed by HS, membership progress could slow further if no agreement is reached at the summit. Finland would not actually be threatened by the delay, but for NATO it would be a loss of image.

Read more: Scholars: Prolongation of the Turkey dispute would be detrimental to NATO’s image – is the membership process threatening to freeze, as Prime Minister Marin has said?

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, NATO has shown great unity.

If an agreement on the membership issue between Finland and Sweden is not reached in Madrid, it is likely to dispel the image of a coal-blown alliance.